Dazed and Coughing

Friday night I went to see the San Jose Ballet perform Swan Lake. It was fine, costumes were lovely (though I hated the bad guy's full get-up), music was good, crowd was supportive, etc. Alas, I also spent the evening fighting an insane desire to clear my lungs. I thought it was latent asthma, a reaction to dry cleaning chemicals, something unusual like that, but many hours later, after I'd used up half of David's stash of cough drops during the performance, I could not deny that it was much more mundane--I had the flu. The following few days are a blur. I tell you all this in advance of my next comments, because I cannot attest that the views expressed herein are not simply the result of a prolonged fever haze....

Yippee for me that I was lifelessly bundled on the sofa this rainy day weekend, because both Michael Clayton and Harry Potter arrived to visit me!

Contemporary drama Michael Clayton fit my mood particularly well, with its stark stylings and straightforward suspense. The eponymous character, played by George Clooney (as if you didn't know), is a fixer with a law firm. Among other problems on his slate, he's trying to rein in a colleague whose manic behavior threatens an important case for agribusiness client U/North. The movie's cast is solid, and though primary story centers on Clayton, others are given depth enough of their own (Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, and Tom Wilkinson are, as always, very good). In hindsight it seems like dialogue was minimal, action was too, but it felt like a lot was going on. Lucky for me, because I couldn't have handled more complexity than this at the time. The pace is deliberate, the clues reinforced thoughtfully without a hammer, and there's not a whiff of sappiness. Recommended for patient drama fans.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix kept me entertained while my teeth chattered--that's saying something, right? Here Harry is a moody, lonely, self absorbed teenager. Back at Hogwarts after an isolated summer and averted expulsion, Harry believes that Dumbledore is ignoring him. He's personally witnessed the return of Voldemort, but few believe him. And he knows the new Defense Against Dark Arts (DADA) instructor is tormenting him (Imelda Staunton is fantastic as the evil Umbridge). All Harry wants is to help out with the growing underground movement to fight, which is what he eventually does by breaking the rules and training an army of students in DADA (no, not dada). Good stuff, right? Okay, the scene changes were too jarring in many cases for my addled brain, and I was lucky to have read the book so I could fill in many explanatory details that were left out, but the adaptation seemed overall very successful. And the look of this movie was wonderful, much better than most of the previous incarnations (Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban laid the groundwork for a darker Harry Potter world quite nicely). I also liked casting of Luna, minimal appearance of Hagrid (sorry, Hagrid fans), and flashback footage which added cohesion to series. Recommended as a must see for followers of story, and a much better entry for those new to the series than the last film.

Finally, I would be remiss without mentioning the Oscars. I thought this year's clothes were unexceptional (see what I care about?). I discovered that Ryan Seacrest is pretty funny. I thought Jon Stewart--who I like--used too many political jokes (hello, this is a movie awards show. Mix it up!). Amy Adams singing is a million times more charming than Kristen Chenoweth singing. My favorite moment was when the folks who starred in the lovely Irish indie film Once won for best song. Seriously, after that, I didn't care who won. And that's not just the Nyquil speaking.