A review of "Happily Ever After"

"Happily Ever After"

This is a great French film by Yvan Attal, starring Attal and Charlotte Gainsbourg. It’s a fascinating exploration of marriage, focusing on one relationship in particular, with a few glances into the lives of several other couples. Even though much of it made me cringe – why do married people so often treat each other in such awful ways? – the acting is superb and I was completely sucked in.

Johnny Depp’s cameo is a plus. My only complaint is that the end seemed completely inconsistent with the rest of this grittily realistic movie. I have no idea what that was about, but it’s forgiven.

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A review of "Chicago (Widescreen Edition)"

Chicago (Widescreen Edition)

by Rob Marshall

Chicago: I watched this on DVD last night; maybe it’s better on the big screen. I found it impossible to care about any of the characters, who were one-dimensional and cardboardish. Maybe that’s to be expected in a musical, but the plot was also insufficient to interest me. The music is just ok – did not leave me humming (with the exception of the song “All That Jazz”). The only redeeming features of this musical are a couple of spicy dance routines – gymnastic and energetic. The rest is just, eh, so-so.

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Idoru, by William Gibson

I finished reading "Idoru", by William Gibson.

December was pretty busy and I didn’t have much time for reading. I had to read this book in bits and pieces over the course of the last few weeks, so I couldn’t get into it very deeply. I kept forgetting who the characters were and what was happening. It’s a bad idea to read a book like this over a long stretch of time. Next book I read, I will try for more focus.

See more progress on: Read one book a month

200K - complete!

Finished the last 10K tonight, hooray! Now I need to catch up on my weightlifting workouts, where I’ve been slacking off.

See more progress on: Complete the Concept2 Holiday Challenge 2005

145K complete

I was in a hurry last night, so I only did a 5K. Fifteen days into the Challenge, I find the rowing has gotten significantly easier since I started this winter. Usually it’s the other way around, and I’m beginning to drag at this point. I don’t know what’s different this time except that I hadn’t rowed for about six months when I started the Challenge.

See more progress on: Complete the Concept2 Holiday Challenge 2005

Day 13

130K complete as of today! Not bad!

Day 9

Did another 10K on my rower for the Holiday Challenge, just now!

Did another 10K

Despite the fact that I had no energy whatsoever. That puts me at 80K into the Holiday Challenge.

Day 7

Yes, another 10K, despite the fact that I got only 5 hours of sleep. Yay me! That makes 70K so far ...

Day 6

Another 10K!