Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All

I went into the read thinking that this was going to be an action novel for some reason. The title is very provocative and the movie promos feature a very dynamic-looking female character. I’ve done my best to stay away from details about this book so I really wasn’t prepared for what I encountered.

Spoilers below:
Since I was expecting an action novel, the ploddingly slow start was confusing. The prose is not unpleasant, and the details are interesting, but there is a lot of explaining and talking without anything much happening. This goes on for more than half the book.

When I finally realized that I was going to be reading a murder mystery and a financial mystery, I pretty much knew right away what the resolutions were going to be. The set up for both story lines are pretty obvious. No, I was not prepared for the exact specifics and how disturbing the crime portion turned out to be, but those plot revelations always had to be told to us. They were not ones that we, the readers, could have figured out on our own. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that kind of mystery.

Overall, the book was readable and fairly entertaining. I did read late into the night because I wanted to find out what happened. But I do have trouble with the questionable pacing and the lack of depth within the main characters.

I know that this was a first effort, and that Larsson died before the manuscripts ever reached an editor’s eye, but for me, it would have been a pick-up-and-put-down novel. I’m still not sure why it has just caught fire around the world. Thanks to the reputation of the series, however, I will have to give the second book, The Girl Who Played with Fire, a try.

Tags: Books // Add Comment »

Ask Aunt Susan by Seth Bockley
Directed by Joanie Schultz
Goodman Theatre, Owen Theatre

This post is two months late. Ask Aunt Susan played in November as a part of the Goodman’s New Stages Amplified series, which is such an interesting idea. Three playwrights were given the opportunity to workshop brand new plays in front of live audiences. Essentially, I would be watching a work in progress, and I would just happen to catch this one on the last day of its run.

With that in mind, I must nevertheless recommend to Seth Bockley that he really has to buckle down and do some additional work on this piece if he wants to make it live.

If I remember correctly, the play was 90 minutes with no intermission, a requirement of the workshop. The play that I saw was not a 90-minute play.

The plot set up is pretty straight forward. A young computer guy gets roped into writing content for an online advice site as “Aunt Susan.” His troubles multiply as this fictional character explodes in popularity.

The play starts off really well with a good establishment of character and the promise of some lively dialogue. Here, we are grounded in a pretty realistic world. As the play progresses though, it morphs more and more into techno-noir.

I have no idea if “techno-noir” is a thing or not but I must confess that I didn’t pick up that this was a noir work until the post-show discussion.

Noir is a lot about atmosphere and feeling, sometimes at the expense of a logical plot. Noir hides characters’ motivations and invites sinister undertones. If the audience (me) is not aware of this noir intention, a disconnect and dislike can really come quickly.

Independent of this, I felt that there were too many other competing trends and themes to go along side. Are we going to talk about identity, alienation, cyber-morality, the validity of relationships online, and capitalistic greed?

The play either needs to be expanded in length to better develop what needs to be developed or have its content edited to be more comfortable in its 90-minute skin. The characters were either too many or not-developed enough. The main character’s breakdown either needs to be more realistic or more crazy. The play felt trapped in between both ends of what it could be. To be entirely honest though, I’m not sure it could be saved into something beyond merely ok.

Tags: Theater // Add Comment »

I am at a loss about the acclaim received by The King’s Speech. To me, it felt like a BBC television production.

I did see this on my television instead of on the big screen but this only served to emphasize the appropriateness of the film to live as a television miniseries.

The “smallness” of the movie is due to the choices of the filmmakers. The story of The King’s Speech plays out mainly in interiors and with a limited number of characters. In addition, the shots are all framed to emphasize walls and enclosures. Metaphor for the difficulties of a stuttering king? perhaps.

But it certainly made me wonder at the true impact of his speaking difficulties on his subjects and his nation. The film says that King George VI’s stutter became an ever growing issue as Europe rose to face the threat of Hitler. His speech made him seem weak.

As a military history nerd, you don’t need to tell me how important a strong and unifying leader is during a time of war. But when I watch such a story in a movie, I want to feel this importance.

The king (and as a prince previously) is shown making one uneasy public appearance after another. What is the risk/reward? What are the consequences of his awkwardness? From this movie, I’m not really sure. I want to feel his struggle and share in his eventual triumph. I don’t think this film helped me in any of this.

I have nothing but the highest regard for the abilities of Colin Firth after A Simple Man. I think the movie lets him down here. He and Jeff Bridges should have traded years.

If I Picked the Oscars 2011 (in order of my vote)

Best Picture:

• True Grit
• Black Swan
• Toy Story 3
• Inception
• Winter’s Bone
• The Social Network
• 127 Hours
• The Fighter
• The King’s Speech
• The Kids Are All Right

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
• James Franco (127 Hours)
• Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
• Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
• Javier Bardem (Biutiful) have not seen

Tags: Movies // Add Comment »