Plan B was available - I'd managed to get my film list done over the weekend. Now, top of the list for tonight was a sweet little film called Ethel & Ernest - but tonight, that was only showing all the way up in JW3, at 6:30 - I wouldn't have made that either. So I trawled down through my list for the next one on tonight.. came down to the 8.1s (as per IMDB rating), and now things were getting interesting. I was rather glad to see that Starfish, whose rating has fallen to that, is only showing on Wednesday this week - it does sound depressing. And, of all days, Wednesday is the one day this week I won't change my plans for. No, what I was interested in among these was Nocturnal Animals - and was I ever delighted to discover that it was showing in my local cinema, at 8pm! Interestingly, Arrival - Amy Adams' other big current release - which is previewing on Thursday - was also showing tonight: but only if you had an Unlimited card.. and as I keep saying, although it'd sometimes be good value, I just can't guarantee going to Cineworld enough to justify the monthly fee..
So anyway, I booked (it's cheaper), and even had time to nip to Lidl and buy some dinner to scoff, before dashing out again. Wow, it's been absolutely ages since I drove anywhere for the evening! Ages since I drove to this cinema, too - but I remembered the way, there was virtually no traffic, and I made good time. Did begin to wonder at how long the lifts from the car park were taking, though. And when I eventually got to the lobby, it was ironic - all the times I've had to enter on the right although my screen was on the left, while tonight, my screen was on the right, but we had to enter on the left because of building works. Bah humbug!
Came in just in time for an interesting-looking trailer for a Shyamalan film called Split, about a kidnapper with a split personality. And then we were into the main feature - and I was to be glad I got an end seat, and that the seat was beside a wall; I needed some support at times.
In Nocturnal Animals, Amy Adams is the woman who has it all - a successful career as an artist, she's on the board of a museum, married to a gorgeous hunk, has a beautiful young daughter. Her life is filmed in classic Hollywood style - she has the big house with panoramic views over the city, servants, chic outfits. Except it's a veneer - her marriage isn't all it could be, neither is her husband's career, her daughter doesn't keep in touch. We meet, in one scene, her classically snobbish mother, Laura Linney. And then one day, she gets a surprise parcel in the post - her ex-husband, (the even more gorgeous than her new husband, if you ask me) Jake Gyllenhaal, has finally gotten around to writing a novel, which he's dedicated to her, and whose manuscript he's sent her. He's called it "Nocturnal Animals" - his pet name for her, as it seems she never sleeps.
Just as well she doesn't sleep anyway, considering she starts reading the thing before she goes to bed. The film now flips between the book, and her life apart from the book - and the book is the reason I was glad to have a wall to lean on. For moral and physical support, you might say. Jake Gyllenhaal also plays the central character here, and has quite a hard time of it. Now, it's not much of a spoiler to say that it's a reflection of their life together - even his wife in the story, played by Isla Fisher, is quite a ringer for her!
Put it this way - and without wanting to give away too much of the plot - it's gruelling. If someone wrote that with me as inspiration, I'd be worried. She emails him near the end of the film, to say it was a beautiful and disturbing read (or words to that effect). Set in west Texas, it's all dust and dirt, low-lifes and misery. The contrast with her day to day life couldn't be greater.
The Standard reviewer said it improved on a second viewing - I think I can see why. So many little touches in the film act as metaphors, for instance - like her paper cut on opening the parcel containing the manuscript. Jake Gyllenhaal does a fantastic job of playing two characters leading very different lives, and the final scene - always an important litmus test for me - is devastatingly understated, yet effective. The film looks gorgeous, the acting is uniformly terrific, it hits home with the force of a hammer - and it's clever, y'know? Very, very highly recommended, and I'm glad I got to see it, accidentally.
Tomorrow, yippee, I'm back with free comedy in Hammersmith! (so far). Only with three groups so far - Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith Wimbledon and Farringdon, London Live Comedy, and London for a Tenner or Less (just the once). If I feel like it.
Wednesday is back with the Man with the Hat, who's taking Let's Do London - for less! to Southwark Playhouse, to see Orca.
Thursday - yes, you guessed it, free comedy in Hammersmith! Think of it as a placeholder. Funnily enough, I'd just booked with London for a Tenner or Less, and only just noticed that Free Comedy Nights in Hammersmith Wimbledon and Farringdon, and London Live Comedy, were also advertising. Again. So I've booked. Again. What the hey, it's free.
Now, on Friday, London Dramatic Arts are off to see King Lear at the Barbican. Haven't seen that since I studied it in school. Well, I'm off to see it too - cheaper, and sat in the very back row! Hopefully, with the maze that the Barbican is, it'll be fairly easy to avoid them.
And I did have something to do on Saturday - or rather, the Man with the Hat did, until hardly anyone booked, so he cancelled! Bah humbug. Might go to the Lord Mayor's show, which is on that day. Or perhaps a film.
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