Cinderella

Last night was Girls Night Out with my mom and sister for the first screening of Cinderella.  Kenneth Branagh's lovely film is a live action version of the classic fairy tale and it is very much informed by the 1950 Disney animated version.  If you are at all offended by the someday-my-prince-will-come notion that a girl needs to be rescued from an unpleasant situation by a man, then this might not be the movie for you.  But if you are open to it, this film is absolutely enchanting and there is such a great message about having courage and being kind.  I loved everything about it:  the performances, the costumes, the set and art direction, the special effects, and even the choreography in the ball scenes.  Lily James (from Downton Abbey) and Richard Madden (from Game of Thrones) are perfect as Cinderella and Prince Charming and I especially love the fact that he falls in love with her when he first sees her as she really is (a common farm girl) rather than at the ball.  I also really enjoyed all of James' interactions with the mice (including Gus-Gus).   Cate Blanchett is delightfully wicked as the stepmother.  She is, without question, a villain but I liked Blanchett's vulnerability in the role.  The audience certainly understands her motivation for treating Cinderella so badly. My favorite performance was definitely Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother.  This role was tailor-made for the quirky Bonham Carter and I may or may not have giggled out loud when she said, "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo."  The costumes are beautiful, especially Cinderella's dress at the ball, and those glass slippers (made of Swarovski crystal) are spectacular!  I also loved all of the over-the-top dresses worn by the stepmother and the stepsisters.  Branagh's aesthetic in this movie is so beautiful.  Cinderella's house, the surrounding forests, and the palace all conspire to transport the audience to a magical time and place while the ball is everything that a young girl could ever dream of and more.  The special effects are incredible.  Again, I was literally giggling (so was my mom) when the Fairy Godmother turned a pumpkin into a coach and the mice into horses.  It is just as impressive, if not more so, when the spell is broken at midnight and the coach is turned back into a pumpkin.  I would recommend this movie for the first dance at the ball alone!  I was spellbound by the choreography and the camera angles when Cinderella and the prince dance together.  It looks like James is floating on a cloud of blue silk and organza.  It is so incredibly romantic and it almost makes you believe in magic!  The whole time I was watching this movie, I felt like I did when I was a little girl watching the animated version.  Cinderella is so much fun and I especially enjoyed watching it with my mom and sister.

Note:  Stay through the credits so you can hear Helena Bonham Carter sing "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo."  It is worth it! 

Weekend Camping Trip

The mild winter we have been having in Utah has given me a serious case of spring fever!  I have been itching to go camping so Marilyn and I planned this little weekend getaway to our favorite KOA in Fillmore (ironically we had the biggest snowstorm of the year last week).

We left in the afternoon on Friday but we hit some massive traffic on the way out of town so we didn't arrive until late in the evening (Fillmore is about 150 miles south of SLC).  The wonderful people who run this KOA know us personally because we camp here so often!  They told us they were getting worried about us!  They asked us why we weren't in the motor home, if our parents were with us, and if we brought the dogs!  I guess we do camp here a lot!

We love staying in the KOA cabins!  They are so comfortable with heating, air conditioning, and mini refrigerators.  They have nice beds (you bring your own linens or sleeping bags), a desk, and some chairs.  They don't have their own bathroom but there is a communal one nearby with really nice showers.  Friday night felt like a sleepover because we watched movies and ate treats all night!

Some views of our cute cabin. I especially love the porch because it is really relaxing to sit out there and read.  The weather was a little bit chilly but I still sat out there for quite some time!

Saturday was absolutely perfect because we literally did nothing but relax!  We read and sat around the firepit for most of the day.  Sunday was basically a repeat of Saturday. There was nothing that I had to do and that felt so good (especially after a few stressful weeks at school).  Camping (even in a cabin) definitely recharges my batteries and I hope I get to do a lot more of it this spring and summer!

2014

2012

Leviathan

Last night I went to see the Russian film Leviathan which won Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globe Awards, and was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.  I thought it was absolutely brilliant!  I am fascinated by Russia; I've been there twice and I am obsessed with Russian music and literature.  There is something so uncompromisingly beautiful and yet, at the same time, so harsh and forbidding about the landscape, people, and history that holds me enthralled.  Several weeks ago I began seeing previews of Leviathan at my favorite art house theatre and I have been wanting to see it ever since because of the beautiful cinematography and the quintessentially Russian story.  The setting is the northern coastal town of Pribrezhny where a corrupt mayor tries to illegally repossess the property of an out-of-work mechanic using his self-serving police force and an unscrupulous judicial system.  He also seeks the advice of a Russian Orthodox priest who ambiguously sanctions his use of force to acquire the property.  Events unravel tragically for the mechanic and his family until his house is ultimately bulldozed and a major plot twist is revealed in the final scenes.  It is an incredible narrative about the dark side of human nature and the powerful instinct of self-preservation in an inhospitable environment.  It is also a scathing critique of Russian corruption, in politics and religion, juxtaposed with the stark beauty of Russia itself.  The tension builds slowly, very slowly, but eventually reaches a climax that I didn't see coming.  It is a haunting film that I recommend if you have the opportunity to see it!

Ghost at HCT

I am not a fan of the current trend on Broadway of turning popular movies into stage musicals; however, Hale Centre Theatre seems very fond of producing them (9 to 5,  Catch Me If You Can, Big, The Wedding Singer, and Footloose are a few that come to mind).  I almost always attend these shows because I am a fan of the original movie but, with the exception of Catch Me If You Can, I am usually disappointed.  That is definitely the case with HCT's latest offering, Ghost, which I saw last night.  It tells the well-known love story of Sam Wheat (Derek Smith), who is murdered in a robbery gone wrong, and Molly Jensen (Bre Welch), the woman he loves and watches over.  Both of these lead actors are incredibly talented, but I feel that they were miscast.  The songs have a pop feel to them and their voices were much too controlled and their enunciation was too perfect for that style of singing.  I kept wanting them to let loose and sing the blues. Then again, maybe their lackluster performances should be blamed on the material.  In my opinion, none of the songs are even remotely memorable.  It is as if full pages of dialogue from the screenplay were simply put to the accompaniment of music.   So contrived.  The only song I enjoyed was "Unchained Melody" but I thought it was completely overused. There wasn't much chemistry between the two leads (this could be due to the fact that, like the last show I saw, the actors were a mix of the MWF and THS casts).   In the famous pottery wheel scene, Welch seemed more focused on making the perfect pot rather than responding to the caresses of her lover.  All of my attention was focused on the pot, as well, because there wasn't much else going on, especially when compared to that particular scene in the movie.  I did enjoy McKenna K. Jensen's performance as Oda Mae Brown and I thought the special effects were incredible, especially the scenes on the subway. However, the set design was a rare miss for Kacey Udy.  Much of the action takes place on a large platform above the stage, which is cool, but I couldn't really see anything from where I was sitting and that was definitely irritating. There was a piano, cello, and violin trio playing on other platforms which were lowered from the ceiling at various times but I didn't really understand the significance. Again, it was cool, but it didn't contribute to the story in any way.  Bottom line: give this one a miss. Find your old VHS copy of the movie and watch it instead.

All the Light We Cannot See

In February my book club chose to read All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and I literally couldn't put it down, reading well into the night and on my lunch hour to finish it.  I loved this book so much!  I had to know how what happened but, at the same time, I was sad to finish it!  The story is set during the Nazi occupation of France and the narrative alternates between Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind girl living in the ancient town of St. Malo on the northern coast of France, and Werner Pfennig, an orphan who is sent to a prestigious military school in Germany because of his engineering skills.  Both of these characters are wonderfully developed and I began to care about them immediately.  Marie-Laure loves the book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne and wants to explore the world around her despite her overprotective father.  Werner is grateful for the opportunity to leave the dreary life of a coal miner that he was destined for to join the army but questions the brutality of the Nazis (I loved the character of Werner because I don't think all Germans of this era should be described as evil in absolute terms).  What ties these two characters together are radio airwaves (described as invisible filaments of light connecting everyone).  Marie-Laure and her family use the radio to send information to help the Resistance while Werner helps develop triangulation methods to locate the radios that are illegally broadcasting. When their stories converge during the aftermath of the D-Day invasion, it is heartrendingly beautiful! I loved so many things about this book!  I spent some time in the city of St. Malo when I was younger and Doerr's incredibly descriptive language transported me back there: I could feel the wind on my face, taste the salt from the breeze on my tongue, hear the sound of the crashing waves, feel the cobblestone streets under my feet, and see the majestic city walls all around me as I read. Such an amazing setting.  Doerr also brilliantly captures the anguish Werner feels when he realizes that everything he has been taught is a lie.  Not only did I love the characters of Marie-Laure and Werner but I also enjoyed the cast of supporting characters, especially Madame Medec and her "Old Ladies Resistance Club," Jutta, Werner's sister, who is dismayed at the thought of her brother turning into a Nazi, and Etienne, so traumatized by the Great War that he cannot leave his house.  I have a particular fondness for historical fiction, especially World War II, but this novel transcends the genre.  I would highly recommend it to everyone for its compelling story, strong characterization, and beautiful prose!