What We Did on Our Holiday

I'm in Bishopbriggs. Waiting for me when I arrived was a jiffy bag from Marcel containing a film (movie) entitled What We Did on Our Holiday. This evening Anna and I watched it. I haven't laughed at a film so much for many a long year. The cast and writers are all well known and the film is brilliant. Despite that it seems to have sunk without trace in that it is available on Amazon at a rock bottom price and for even less in Sainsbury's. I think that the last time I reviewed a film was in 2008 when I had just part-watched a film that I really didn't take to. Since that post when I mentioned that I  didn't watch many films, my life in New Zealand has meant that, in fact, I have now watched quite a few. So if you want a real escapism laugh out loud couple of hours I recommend that you watch this one.

Two Lives

As a general rule my New Zealand life and my Scottish life manage to separate themselves in my brain emotionally.  I am frequently asked (usually in the UK) where I would wish to settle if I had to make a choice.  That's a question I always avoid answering.  

After The News this evening I happened to notice that The Phantom of The Opera was on the box and decided to put it on whilst I was finishing organising the Study (which I've been doing all afternoon) and writing my Thankful Thursday post.  Wow.  I hadn't allowed for what happened after I'd been listening (and partly watching) it for a short while.

I occasionally have the DVD on in the evening when I'm alone in The Cottage - my New Zealand home. My brain has obviously indellibly associated it with my New Zealand life.  Suddenly I was an alien in my own land.  I looked out over a familiar and loved land and seascape and experienced another life: a life from which I am, at this moment, detached.  It's an experience I will never be able to explain adequately but it is undoubtedly one of the most emotionally harrowing experiences I've had.

I suppose it's not one helped by the fact that the music and words of the work are also so emotionally charged.

Phew.

The Constant Gardner

I don't know how long ago it is since John and Sue bought me the DVD of The Constant Gardner but it seems to have been on my shelf for ages, possibly several years. So far as films are concerned I don't cope very well with journeys into the unknown and therefore I'm not the greatest watcher of films that I haven't already seen. So how do I see them the first time? I wait until there is a Steve around to advise and/or bully me: Steve's seen almost every film I'm ever likely to encounter. Anyway, David and I watched The Constant Gardner on Friday evening. Well David watched it and I watched most of it. True to form when things got harrowing I went and did something else. I am a very bad companion with whom to watch a film - unless it's something like The African Queen or Casablanca. There might, of course, be other incentives to sit still through the film but David isn't one of them!

'What about the film?' I hear you ask. Hmm. It has Rachel Weisz in it which is a good start; and Ralph Fiennes. Bill Nighy as a serious player in a gripping suspense thriller after his role in Love Actually and sundry other similar roles somehow didn't ring true. In fact I found the film oddly disjointed and unbelievable and wasn't even impressed by the acting. Although based on a spy thriller by John Le Carré one got the impression that the film's makers were trying to get a campaigning point across to the audience. Whether they were or not it didn't to my mind succeed in doing either that nor, frankly, much else. I always think of Le Carré as being a weaver of subtle plots. There was surprise in this film but no subtlety.

I'm glad I've seen it. But it won't be on the agenda for a second viewing.