Movies of Interest

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead:
Slow to start, but if you have patience and love Hamlet, this movie is hilarious! Gary Oldman (a personal favorite) and Tim Roth star as the title pair, two of Hamlet's schoolmates/friends sent for by King Claudius and Queen Gertrude to cheer Hamlet out of his melancholy. And like the students they are, they spend the entire time investigating scientific principles, making comical but inept observations about things like probability and gravity, only to be distracted by the motion of the actual play, Hamlet, before they move onto their next discussion. For example, after they are set to the task of finding out what ails Hamlet, they come up with this:

[Guildenstern is pretending to be Hamlet]
Rosencrantz: Let me get it straight. Your father was king. You were his only son. Your father dies. You are of age. Your uncle becomes king.
Guildenstern: Yes.
Rosencrantz: Unusual.
Guildenstern: Undid me.
Rosencrantz: Undeniably.
Guildenstern: He slipped in.
Rosencrantz: Which reminds me...
Guildenstern: Well, it would.
Rosencrantz: I don't want to be personal.
Guildenstern: Common knowledge.
Rosencrantz: Your mother's marriage.
Guildenstern: He slipped in.
Rosencrantz: His body was still warm!
Guildenstern: So was hers.
Rosencrantz: Extraordinarily...
Guildenstern: Indecent.
Rosencrantz: Hasty.
Guildenstern: Suspicious.
Rosencrantz: Makes you think.
Guildenstern: Don't think I haven't.
Rosencrantz: And with her husband's brother!
Guildenstern: They *were* close.
Rosencrantz: She went to him...
Guildenstern: Too close.
Rosencrantz: For comfort.
Guildenstern: It looks bad.
Rosencrantz: Adds up.
Guildenstern: Incest to adultery.
Rosencrantz: Would you go so far?
Guildenstern: Never!
Rosencrantz: To sum up: your father, whom you love, dies. You are his heir. You come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before his young brother pops onto his throne and into his sheets, thereby offending both legal and natural practice. Now... why exactly are you behaving in this extraordinary manner?
Guildenstern: I can't imagine.

The Cat Returns:
A Studio Ghibli film, animated, Disney...Cary Elwes, Anne Hathaway! Sweet, cute, and not a minute too long. And, of course, all about cats, except for the moral of the story, which can apply to anyone, cat or not.

He's Just Not That Into You:
I'll admit, I wasn't at all interested in seeing this movie when it first came out in theatres, but once Mel and Lyne rented it, I couldn't exactly say "no" to watching it, and I'm glad I didn't. I have never cringed, cried, squealed, or bit my nails for any movie like I did for this one. All the things girls and guys (mostly girls) do to mess up relationships are in this movie - and guess what - you've done them! How embarrassing! The dramatic irony is intense, as you know what's happening, and what will happen if this character does this or that, and you're powerless to prevent them from making the biggest and most embarrassing blunders of their fictional lives. And that, perhaps, is what is so endearing about this movie. It's real - the embarrasment, the frustration, the heartbreak, and eventually, the happiness that results in some (but not all) of the little stories in the film look real. That's why you have to see it.