Jersey Boys

Tuesday night I went to see the movie adaptation of the hit stage musical Jersey Boys.  My Dad really loves The Four Seasons so I grew up listening to their music.  I remember singing "Rag Doll" at the top of my lungs during road trips when I was a little girl (we also listened to the Beatles and the Eagles on road trips).  I had the opportunity to see the musical last summer and I absolutely loved it!  I loved it so much that I bought tickets for my Dad on my phone during intermission (He loved it, too).  I loved the movie just as much as the musical.  While any performance has much more energy and intimacy with the audience, this movie provides the verisimilitude that the musical lacks because we see the actual venues where the action takes place (the acoustics in the church where Frankie practices are amazing, for example).   Many of the actors in this film are unknown (at least they were unknown to me) except for Christopher Walken, who plays a mob boss (rather hilariously, I might add).  John Lloyd Young reprises the role of Frankie Valli, which he originated on Broadway (for which he won a Tony).  He is spot on with Valli's signature falsetto, in my opinion.  Erich Bergen and Michael Lomenda also reprise their roles as Bob Gaudio and Nick Massi, respectively.  Bergen (I may or may not have a small crush on him now) performed in the Broadway touring company for several years and Lomenda performed in the Toronto production.  I found Vincent Piazza's (from the TV show Boardwalk Empire, which I've never seen) performance as Tommy DeVito to be a bit over the top.  (To be fair, his character is extremely unsympathetic).  However, the real star of this movie is the music!  It features all of the wonderful songs I listened to while growing up: "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Dawn (Go Away)," "Let's Hang On (To What We've Got)," "Working My Way Back to You," "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," and, of course, my favorite "Rag Doll." I especially loved when they perform "Sherry" on American bandstand, "Let's Hang On" on the Ed Sullivan Show, and "Rag Doll" at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (which were also my favorite scenes in the musical).  There is a fun medley during the final credits and people were actually dancing in the aisles (everyone danced at the Capitol Theatre during the final bows).  I really enjoyed this movie and I recommend it to people who love The Four Seasons (especially my Dad).

Note:  I was, by far, the youngest person in the theater.  This is becoming a recurring theme in my life!  Clearly, I was born during the wrong time.

O Canada

Today is Canada Day!  While Canada is no longer my home, it is definitely my native land.  I have actually lived more years in the United States than I did in Canada and I am very grateful for all of the opportunities that I have had as an American citizen, but I am very proud of the fact that I am Canadian!  Canada is the land that I love!

Rebecca

During the month of June my book club chose to read the classic Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.  Even though the movie adaptation is one of my very favorites (I am a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock), I had never actually read this book! It was quite unusual for me to be comparing the book to the movie instead of vice versa.  I kept picturing Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter and Joan Fontaine as his second wife (I didn't realize until reading the book that the narrator is never actually named).  The narrator is a shy, mousy, and penniless young woman in Monte Carlo as the paid companion to an odious woman. There she meets the aloof and tormented Maxim de Winter and, after a whirlwind romance, she spontaneously marries him.  When they return to Manderley, Max's opulent home on the coast of Cornwall, she begins to feel the oppressive presence of Rebecca, the first Mrs. de Winter. Knowing that she cannot compete with the beautiful and sophisticated Rebecca, the narrator begins to doubt her relationship with Max and sinks into despair.  The housekeeper at Manderley, the sinister Mrs. Danvers, tells the narrator that she will never live up to Rebecca and tries to convince her to commit suicide.  There are quite a few plot twists as the circumstances of Rebecca's mysterious death are revealed and the story builds and builds to a startling conclusion. Despite seeing the movie more times than I can count, I was literally on the edge of my seat from the suspense.  The novel is even more suspenseful than the movie because the reader is actually inside the head of the narrator as she is slowly driven mad. However, I do feel that the movie does a better job of making Rebecca an actual character in the story, perhaps because film is a visual medium.  I really enjoyed reading this classic Gothic romance and, if you are a fan of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (and I certainly am), I suspect you will enjoy Rebecca as well.

Note:  I also highly recommend the Academy Award winning movie.  Good stuff.

Natalie Cole at Red Butte Garden

I have very eclectic taste in music.  A friend of mine once told me that I like everything from Beethoven to the Beatles to the Beastie Boys!  I guess that's true!  I became a fan of Natalie Cole after I saw her perform a Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  I was so impressed that I bought her album Unforgettable: With Love, which is a collection of many of the songs her father, Nat King Cole, sang (including her iconic duet with her father on "Unforgettable"), and it quickly became one of my favorites.  I think I have established the fact that I absolutely love going to outdoor performances in the summer, so imagine my happiness when I found out Natalie Cole would be performing at the Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre this summer!  I bought a ticket as soon as they were available to the general public and have been eagerly anticipating the concert ever since.  It was wonderful!  I think I was the youngest person there, but I absolutely loved it.  The opening act was Joy & Eric, a duo from Park City.  They played covers of various songs with just an acoustic guitar and I especially loved Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" and Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer."  Natalie Cole began with a very sultry rendition of "Fever" which got the crowd in the mood.  She, along with her amazing musicians and backup singers, turned the large outdoor venue into a smokey jazz club for a few hours.  Luckily for me she played many songs from my favorite album including "Route 66," "The Very Thought of You," "Smile," "L-O-V-E," and, of course, "Unforgettable."  Cole also included many covers including Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money," Michael Jackson's "Human Nature," Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing," and Etta James' "At Last!"  She ended her set with "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)" which got the entire crowd up and dancing!  For the encore, she sang an acoustic version of Des'ree's "You Gotta Be" which was amazing.  Such a lovely evening sitting under the stars listening to wonderful music!

Note:  Even though I was the youngest person there, I knew all of the words to every song!

Edge of Tomorrow

I love a good summer blockbuster!  There is something about sitting in an air conditioned theater on a hot summer day with a tub of popcorn while watching things blow up on a giant screen that appeals to me.  Don't get me wrong, I like good storytelling as much as the next person but it is awfully fun to watch things blow up!  Last Saturday I saw Edge of Tomorrow, a great movie which combines both: incredible action sequences and an interesting and compelling story.  A race of aliens, known as Mimics, have invaded continental Europe and the United Defense Force is waging a conventional war against them.  Tom Cruise (not a big fan but I liked him well enough in this role) plays Major William Cage, a cocky PR officer who gets arrested and demoted to private on the eve of a D-Day like invasion of France.  The invasion is a slaughter but Cage is able to use a grenade to kill a Mimic in close proximity, getting covered in the Mimic's blood as he dies.  He wakes up again on the eve of the invasion.  Eventually, after being killed and waking up multiple times, he realizes that he can reset the day and enlists the help of Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a war hero known as the "Angel of Verdun," to help him win the war against the Mimics.  The script is excellent with snappy dialogue throughout.  There are many amusing scenes, especially when Cage tries to warn his superior officer of the outcome of a battle set to happen tomorrow.  Cruise and Blunt have great chemistry without a lot of the usual sexual tension (I pretty much love the fact that she trains him) and the movie ends perfectly with a fantastic scene between them.  The special effects are amazing and they add to, rather than detract from, the story.  I think director Doug Limon (known for The Bourne Identity which is one of my favorites) always does an excellent job with action sequences.  I recommend that you get out of the heat, buy a big tub of popcorn, and spend a couple of hours watching Tom Cruise blow things up!