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revdorothyl at 08:03pm on 26/07/2010
revdorothyl at 08:03pm on 26/07/2010I had a great (but tiring!) weekend visit with my seminary friend in Louisville, in spite of the HBO that flickered and died all the time (though we were able to see the HBO film "Temple Grandin" with very little interruption, and both enjoyed that immensely) and the thermostat which decided to turn on the heater instead of merely turning off the AC temporarily when I bumped it up two degrees, and so set off the smoke alarm and stank up my bedroom for a couple of hours.
Just before I had to drive home yesterday afternoon, we went out to see "Inception" in a lovely, little, less-expensive multiplex tucked around behind an unobtrusive strip mall, and we both enjoyed that greatly as well (definitely glad I saw it, and some interesting things to talk about, but I wouldn't call it a great film, nor do I feel any need to see it again).
I did my work-out on the exercycle tonight, and now I'm going home to get to bed early, since I'm still short of sleep from the weekend.
Just before I had to drive home yesterday afternoon, we went out to see "Inception" in a lovely, little, less-expensive multiplex tucked around behind an unobtrusive strip mall, and we both enjoyed that greatly as well (definitely glad I saw it, and some interesting things to talk about, but I wouldn't call it a great film, nor do I feel any need to see it again).
I did my work-out on the exercycle tonight, and now I'm going home to get to bed early, since I'm still short of sleep from the weekend.
(no subject)
Exercised this morning, closing in on my goal weight!
(no subject)
And I think my enthusiasm for "Inception" was dimmed somewhat by the fact that I've never been particularly attracted by Leonardo diCaprio, though I'm sure his performance was very effective (and yes, the issues raised about subconscious baggage and the emotional roots of really insidious and/or transformative ideas WERE worth a lot of conversations). Besides, there were Cillian Murphy and Joseph Gordon Leavitt (sp?) for some serious cuteness, plus some enjoyable old-timers like Michael Caine, Tom Berenger, and Pete Postlethwaite (even if he never got to say much from his hospital bed).
I felt a little sour about the ending, though, because I spent the last hour or so of the film FEARING that they'd do just what they did (or almost -- I was actually afraid they'd CONFIRM that he was still inside the dream, rather than merely plant a very strong suggestion to that effect, with the possibility of a little wobble there at the end to put in a smidge of doubt). In fact, it occurred to me that they might go further and suggest that everything in the movie was within the disturbed dreams of this troubled individual.
That ending felt manipulative and unworthy of the rest of the film, to me.
(no subject)
I've enjoyed deCaprio in the last several movies he's done. I never was much of a fan of him before. I thought Inception was a bit long for it's own good and there were a couple of places it could have been a bit more coherent. That said, visually I found it stunning and I always enjoy a poke at the nature of reality.
As to the ending, when the girl tells his friend what happened and the friend says "That's it then, he's lost" and she says, "No, he'll be all right." I drew a lot from that. Because she'd seen him face Mal (and the whole thing about her being a shadow, inherently inferior to the real person really resonated for me) she felt he'd be okay either way, because he'd finaly forgiven himself.
(no subject)
I just felt that the doubt at the end was completely unnecessary.
After all, the point of that powerful conversation with subconscious-projection-Mel was that he CAN tell the difference between reality and dream projections, and can let go of the illusion. So why'd they have to muddy up that point with a fairly obvious suggestion that there might be a Shyamalan-ish 'twist', there, in the last moment?
And yes, there were a lot of times in the second half of the film when it was chase scenes or fighting on skis, etc., when I was thinking to myself, "If this was on TiVo, I'd be fast-forwarding right now."