More Travel Viewing

In flight viewing:
Long flights mean lots of strange viewing of movies and TV shows that you may never get a chance to see otherwise. I tried a French, Little House on the Prairie style TV show, and a Curb Your Enthusiasm-like show – BUT much less funny. And the following films:

Another Year – I never even finished this movie because the plane landed, but I wanted to finish it! I’m going to wait until it’s on Netflix instant play. Another Year is a Mike Leigh film, the director known for having his actors improvise the dialogue after months of studying the character. This film is about a British couple whose house is the center of the social life for friends and family, and they are some dysfunctional friends for sure, especially Mary played by Leslie Manville who is flighty and ridiculous and lonely. The movie is in four episodes – one in each season of the year. As I am writing about this I am even more curious to find out what happens in the last scene but worried after I read, “The last scene is quite devastating.” Yikes, what could that be about?

Inception – probably not the best film to watch on an airplane, especially when there are many distractions surrounding me, the food cart, the dude next to me buying duty free big bottles of alcohol etc. Anyway, I tried my best to figure out what Leonardo was doing as he was flying around different dimensions or what cute Ellen Page was doing as she was falling to the ground in slow motion in a smart white parka outfit. I know people say that the LOOVE this movie but I didn’t get it. It seemed like it had one trick that they kept replaying, but as I said, I was distracted.

Post Travel Viewing
My Life in Ruins – A friend from work recommended this movie --another romantic comedy from Nia Vardalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame. And since I just visited Greece and am in love with all things Greek (the Parthenon, feta cheese, tziki sauce, priests with high hats) she suggested My Life in Ruins. I really enjoyed the tourist element of this movie – it is obviously filmed right at the amazingly beautiful ancient ruins in Greece, and there were some funny moments in the film but the romance is a little dull. I definitely recommend it for those who just got back from Greece though. It was full of all the wonderful things I liked about Greece.

Tamera Drew – British movie about a writer’s colony and the village surrounding it. Very underwhelming.