Thursday, December 29, 2005

Movie Review--Fun with Dick and Jane

This movie was more political than I expected. I went to see it just knowing that it was a comedy about a couple that had fallen on hard times and turned to a life a crime. That's accurate, but it's more than that. Dick (Jim Carrey) worked for a company called Globodyne. He had just been promoted to vice president and convinced his wife to quit her job when the company dramatically collapsed. The parallels to Enron were pretty clear. As with Enron, the employees' pension plans consisted of company stocks, so Dick and Jane (Tea Leoni) lost everything. Neither one could find another job. Jane took part in a cosmetic study to earn a whopping $14 and has a really bad reaction. Dick got a job at Kostmart, where he lasted about a day. In the employees' training room, there was a huge anti-union sign. As he was leaving after being fired, Dick yelled something about them not paying enough to support a family anyway. The parallels to Wal-Mart were pretty clear. Dick then tries to get work in jobs that mostly fall to illegal aliens and gets deported. His wife has to help sneak him back over the border.

Dick and Jane sell everything they can, but they don't sell their house. With the collapse of Globodyne, property values had fallen, and they would have actually ended up owing money if they sold. Nearing foreclosure, they turn to a life of crime out of desperation.

Anyway, all of this doesn't really sound like much of a comedy, but it's actually pretty funny. There is the physical comedy, of course. Dick and Jane also get themselves into some highly amusing situations, like trying to rob a bank and running into other former Globodyne employees trying to do the same thing. I really enjoyed this movie, but I would imagine politically conservative individuals would not.

Monday, December 26, 2005

Random Thought #12: Baking Cookies with your Cat

I just realized that it has been over three months since I have posted a random thought. This one isn't actually all that random. My mother showed me an email that she got and since it is absolutely hilarious and cat-related, I decided to post it here. Obviously I didn't make this up myself; I don't know who did. If anyone out there does know, let me know and I will be happy to give proper credit.

Baking Cookies with your Cat:

1. Look in cookbook for cookie recipe.
2. Get cup of coffee.
3. Get cat off cookbook.
4. Find that special recipe.
5. Get cat's nose out of coffee mug.
6. Go the fridge and get eggs.
7. Get dry ingredients from cupboard.
8. Break eggs in small bowl.
9. Sift dry ingredients in large bowl.
10. Answer the phone.
11. Cat ate eggs; get more from fridge.
12. Get cat out of flour bowl and dust cat off.
13. Get Band-Aids for scratches on hands.
14. Throw flour out and get more.
15. Preheat oven for cookies.
16. Looking at cat and wanting to bake cat now. Cat runs for cover into bathroom.
17. Flour the counter to roll out cookie dough.
18. Big crash in bathroom; run to see what happened.
19. Cat has TP all over floor, stuff spilled and knocked over on top of bathroom counter.
20. Yell at cat. Cat falls in toilet bowl.
21. Can sense cat is angry.
22. Take cat out of toilet to dry cat off.
23. Get bandages to cover more scratches on arms and legs.
24. Clean up bathroom.
25. Hear a thump in kitchen. . .oh golly, now what?
26. Get cat off floured counter in kitchen.
27. Try to pick out cat hairs from flour.
28. Step on cat's tail and get bitten.
29. Get coat, car keys, and go to store to buy cookies!!!

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Book Review--Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld

I seem to be reading a lot of first novels lately, all good. Prep is about a middle-class girl's experience at a boarding school. Bored at her public junior high school in South Bend, Indiana, Lee Fiora takes it upon herself to send away for boarding school catalogues and apply. Both she and her parents were surprised when she got in. Her parents couldn't afford such luxury, but when the Ault School in Massachusetts offered her a scholarship that paid for three-quarters of her tuition, they let Lee go.

Lee finds the experience to be more than she bargained for. The teenagers at Ault are rich and sophisticated. As a scholarship student, Lee feels like an outsider. Furthermore, good grades don't come as easily to her at Ault as they did when she was in junior high in South Bend. Still, she never seems to seriously consider going home (I think I would have lasted about a week). She stays for her entire four years of high school.

It's unclear to me whether Lee was better off for the experience or not. It seems to me that the experiences of adolescence--massive insecurity, the intensity of her relationships, peer and academic pressure--are greatly amplified by her boarding school experience. I can so clearly remember thinking many of her thoughts when I was in high school, but being so far from home and among students of a different social class would have to make things so much harder. Plus, it didn't get her into a more prestigious college, and even if it had, I'm not sure it would have been worth it. As the character herself points out, you have your whole life to leave your parents.

I loved this book; as I mentioned, I can remember thinking many of Lee's same thoughts and thus really identified with her, though I never went to boarding school (actually, I entertained thoughts of boarding school for about a week in eighth grade; my parents correctly figured that it was just a phase and waited for it to pass). But the painful experience of adolesence is pretty much universal, and Sittenfeld does a wonderful job of capturing it.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Book Review--Twins, by Marcy Dermansky

Talk about a dysfunctional family. Neglectful, workaholic parents. Twin daughters, one of whom thinks she owns the other and acts like a jealous lover whenever the other makes a friend, and their older brother, who gives them a book on twin experiments conducted in Nazi Germany for their 13th birthday. The story is told from the point of view of the twins, in alternating first-person accounts. Sue, the jealous twin, truly scared me for quite awhile with her jealousy and violent tendencies. And I felt sorry for Chloe, who wanted friends and boyfriends and basically a normal adolescence, which was essentially denied her by Sue. Their largely absentee parents were no help at all. When they were present, they tended to use a tape recorder and note pad when talking to their kids, basically acting as though they were clients in their law firm.

Both girls had trouble with eating disorders, and Sue abused pills. Their choices for friends and lovers usually were not terribly wise. Their brother, Dan, took an interest in Sue and was somewhat of a source of support for her, but he didn't really know how to help her either. The books spans the ages of 13 to 18 for the girls, and their parents basically give up when they are 16 or 17. Sue runs away from home to stay with an ex-girlfriend of her brother's, and the parents pull back completely and give Dan money to give to her. They also pretty much abandon Chloe, leaving her to live in their house all alone while they spend their time in a Manhattan apartment (after which Chloe immediately chooses inappropriate housemates). Giving money is no problem, but forget about guidance and emotional support. They just amazed me with their incompetence. The twins struggle to find heir way, which only happens when they can forge their own separate identities.

The book is amazingly good. It pulls the reader in from the very beginning. This is Dermansky's first novel, and I hope to see many more from her.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Movie Review--The Family Stone

I expected to like this movie more than I did. I also expected it to be funnier. While it did have some very funny moments, in general, I would consider it more drama than comedy. Sarah Jessica Parker plays the part of Meredith, an uptight, conservative woman who comes to spend the Christmas holidays with her soon-to-be-fiance, Everett Stone (Dermot Mulroney) and his family. His family doesn't like her at all at first, and they are quite mean to her. Mean enough, in fact, that I had trouble reconciling the fact that they were supposed to be easy-going liberal sorts with how horribly they treated her. It is true that Meredith made an ass of herself at times. Her comments one night at dinner indicating that Everett's gay brother and his partner shouldn't adopt a child because becoming gay might be partly due to environment stand out most starkly to me. But, they'd already treated her pretty badly before that and never really gave her a chance or tried to help her feel more comfortable.

Meredith feels so uncomfortable that she invites her sister, Julie (Claire Danes) to spend the holidays with them. This is when things get really interesting. Everett had never met Julie before that and finds himself drawn to her. Meanwhile, his older brother Ben (Luke Wilson) tries to befriend Meredith.

Anyway, like I said, more drama than comedy. It would have been better the other way around. I'm not sure it was necessary to have the mother be terminally ill, either. I don't really think it made the story better, though it sure made it sadder. The movie does have its moments, though, as well as an impressive cast.

Friday, December 16, 2005

Book Review--What to Keep, by Rachel Cline

This book examines the life of protagonist Denny Roman at three different stages--ages 12, 26, and 36. The daughter of two divorced, remote neuroscientists, Denny is facing adolescence without a whole lot of guidance from them. Her parents are very busy with their careers, and several years previously, they hired Maureen to manage many of the details of their lives. Maureen is a 35-year-old agoraphobic who serves as a sort of surrogate parent to Denny. Besides her busy career, Denny's mother, Lily, is coping (poorly) with her 41st birthday and an unintended pregnancy.

At 26, Denny is an actress, wondering if her career is ever going to take off. She now has a stepfather named Phil. Phil and her mother are moving to New York, and Denny has two days to decide which of her childhood possessions to keep. Oh, and she and her stepfather kiss, on the lips.

At 36, Denny is a playwright living in New York, near her mother again. She is grieving the loss of Maureen, who died at age 59 from a stroke. Maureen's son, Luke, aged 13, shows up on her doorstep one day. Maureen had been a single parent, and when she died, Luke was sent to live with his grandmother in Phoenix. Feeling uncomfortable there, Luke saves his money and runs away to see Denny in New York, hoping he might find a place with her there.

I actually thought the most interesting character was Maureen. The book does get into what led up to her agoraphobia, and how she pulls herself out of it for Denny's sake. Despite having a debilitating anxiety disorder, she came across as the sane one of Denny's parents.

This is Cline's first novel, and pretty good, in my opinion. I look forward to seeing more from her.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Book Review--Devil's Corner, by Lisa Scottoline

This book begins with the protagonist, Vicki, an Assistant US Attorney, staring down the barrel of a gun. She had been going to visit a confidential informant on what she believed to be a minor case, that of a woman who had bought two guns at a gun shop and illegally resold them. But things turned really ugly really quickly. Vicki and her partner, Morty, a dedicated Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agent, arrive upon the scene of a burglary in progress. Vicki narrowly escapes being shot to death, but Morty and the confidential informant aren't so lucky. Devastated, Vicki seeks justice for her murdered partner. Her search and her grief lead her into some problematic behavior, and she is suspended at work. She does have an ally at work, a fellow AUSA named Dan who agrees with her that Morty's killing was not simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Vicki is crazy about Dan, but unfortunately he's married. Furthermore, her search for Morty's killer becomes too dangerous for her to want to let Dan know what she's really doing. She teams up with an unlikely ally who helps her explore a dangerous drug underworld.

This is a great book for anyone who loves legal thrillers, as I do.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Movie Review--Just Friends

Lots and lots of physical comedy in this movie, but it was very funny. Ryan Reynolds stars in the role of Chris. In high school he was an overweight "loser" who was in love with Jamie (Amy Smart), a beautiful cheerleader. When he finally gets up the nerve to confess his feelings to her, she tells him she just wants to be friends.

Ten years later, Chris has transformed himself. He has lost weight and become a successful music executive in LA. Circumstances bring him back home to New Jersey (with an extremely self-absorbed musician, Samantha, in tow), and he encounters his high-school crush for the first time in ten years. So again he tries to win her over, and again it's not easy. Many obstacles present themselves. Samantha is anxious to get to Paris, and Chris keeps trying to distract her with the help of his younger brother, who is only too happy to spend time with the gorgeous Samantha. Chris also has competition, another would-be suitor from high school who has recently moved back to town. His rival, Dusty, is a paramedic who encounters Jamie and Chris when Chris injures himself playing ice hockey (he had wanted to show Jamie just how much his ice skating had improved, but it didn't quite work out like he had hoped). So Chris is in the ambulance with Dusty on one side and Jamie on the other, barely able to move or speak, while Dusty and Jamie are exchanging phone numbers. Talk about frustrating.

So like I said, there was lots of physical comedy, of which the injury on the ice is one example. Chris is generally a clutz, and then there are the regular pummelings he and his brother give each other. I don't always like physical comedy, but Reynolds makes it work. The movie isn't terribly deep, but funny enough to make up for that.