Drove the same route as yesterday - somehow, between noting that the next junction was where I had to turn, and the turn itself, I failed to make the turn, not realising until I was zipping by the B303! Fortunately, this area is not deprived of small roads, and there was another I could turn down, to intersect with the B303 again. Got parking right on the corner of Orlando Road, and made my way back to the Picturehouse - as Google Maps promised, a five-minute walk.
It's a nice cinema - I didn't really want anything from the bar though, or any sweets, and just basically hung around the lobby until I could go in. Handily, they put a sign on the door to say the screen wasn't ready yet - I can think of other cinemas that could benefit from that policy:
Oh, the wait was worth it, for the lovely, comfy seats with the fleecy upholstery, high enough to rest your head on. Some ads, and we were into the main feature. Captain Fantastic is an interesting film - Viggo Mortensen plays a back-to-nature kind of guy, determined to raise his several children away from the corruptions of society. Don't be mistaken though - this is no hippy vibe. This is what you might call a well-rounded education. In the very first scene, we see the eldest son kill a deer, in evidence of his coming of age, and be blooded after. The kids are taught all the necessary survival skills, and given training worthy of any army camp - they do live in the wilderness, after all. In the evenings, they chill over volumes of political theory or literature, and they can all play musical instruments. When required, each - down to the very littlest - can produce a cogent argument for their position on any question. Instead of Christmas, they celebrate Noam Chomskey's birthday.
When we join the story, their mother has long been ill, and in hospital - they're not hospital folk, but she was so ill that it became necessary. Her father - Frank Langella, who has never approved of her dropping off the grid like this - is footing the bill. It's not a major spoiler to say that she dies, not long into the film, and suddenly the kids' dad is faced with having to venture back into the outside world again, and the kids potentially being taken from him. Plus, by the way, they're growing up. Question is - how will their secluded and hot-housed world gel with the wider world past the woods?
One review of this that I read remarked that it there was something in it to offend everyone. Eh, yup. This is definitely a different view of child-rearing, and it's going to offend vegans, people who disapprove of home-schooling, healthcare professionals, Christians, and, um, fat people. As I say, we start with an uncompromising view of a deer being killed, and when the kids see the outside world for the first time and gape, showing their disapproval - well, that scene where they ask whether everyone is ill? Priceless. A family dinner with Viggo Mortensen's sister and her family is just perfect to show the differences between the two families.
Plenty to chew on here. What is the best way to raise children? Why doesn't your average teenager know more, especially about the way government works? What food are we putting in our bodies? And why is it wrong to give children small amounts of wine with dinner, or to tell them the truth about things? In ways, Viggo Mortensen's family really do live in paradise - and it's gorgeous, filmed in Washington State. But it's interesting to see the limits of that idyll, and what regular society might have to offer.
Well, Meetup is still quiet tomorrow - really the only thing was comedy in Hammersmith, but I didn't fancy the line-up this time. So it's film again tomorrow, and I've booked this time. A place called Hackney House - which I'd never heard of - is running The Smalls Film Festival, and I've booked for the evening showing of Drama Shorts.
The rest of the week is busier. On Tuesday, I'm finally scheduled to go to a meeting of the Amnesty International Hammersmith and Fulham Meetup Group, who have a talk about Reform in Myanmar.
Wednesday, I'm back among friendly faces - the Man with the Hat is off to Top Secret again. That's likely to be a late night - pity I have to be in Guildford next day.
Thursday, the best thing I could find was Bear Jokes Comedy, which unfortunately is back in Hackney, with London Live Comedy. Well, the other comedy didn't appeal.
Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend, and on Saturday we're going to the Limetree Theatre for a play based on the love letters between Michael Collins and Kitty Kiernan. Playing for one night only, A Great Arrangement is set during the negotiation of the treaty of Irish independence, and is the latest event inspired by the centenary of 1916, obviously, and also references the Dáil debates and newspaper reports of the time.
The following week, Monday and Tuesday are devoted to the Man with the Hat. On Monday, he's taking Let's Do London - for Less! to Southwark Playhouse, for Punkplay - as the name implies, all about punk. On roller skates, I believe. And on Tuesday, he's taking London for Less than a Tenner to Soho Theatre, to see Two Man Show. Which, as you might expect, has two women in it. Talking about men.
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