my 2 cents

Before I forget, I have to mention the wild, wild thing I saw in one of the trailers that played ahead of this movie. A new Robert Redford film is coming out and in it Helen Mirren plays his wife. The shock. There was a moment I couldn't breathe and a bit of popcorn threatened to close my windpipe for ever. A man in his sixties is going to have a wife in her sixties. Talk about a novel concept! It was so new and DARING that I could hardly blink my eyes for fear of missing it---- the wife wasn't 20 or 30 years younger! Wow---

And, since I have written the name of another one of my goddesses to whom I am handmaiden for eternity--Helen Mirren-- I must say for posterity (whatever posterity electronic medium allows) Helen Mirren just makes me happy. Her mystery series of years ago-- Prime Suspect is in reruns and I am enjoying it every bit as much as I did when we first saw it.

Okay. Whew-- that's a bit off track, now isn't it.

Goodbye Lenin. Hmmm. A bit too East German for me in terms of film sensibility-- MWAH-- as if it should be anything but! But, the bleakness is tough for this little pagan child to handle. Aside from that, there were absolutely inspired, INSPIRED moments and images--- alone they might not sound like much, but within the rhthym of the film, they were pure magic. One was when the statue of Lenin is being carried through the air when the mother has just ventured out for the first time in months-- pure art. I also thought the boy finding his dad was extremely well done.

I'm very glad I saw this film-- it had a bit of the "My Life as a Dog" flavor with the boy's obsession with space-- but I didn't mind terribly (Though "My Life As a Dog" is a far superior film, in my opinion, of course).

In short? Dreary but hopeful with moments of genuine artistry.

updated: May 09, 2004

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