On Monday, all that suited was - finally - Stillwater, showing in the Arc Cinema in Ennis at 5.30. Matt Damon stars as a redneck American dad, who heads to France to try to help his daughter, Abigail Breslin, who's in prison in the den of iniquity that is Marseille, convicted of a murder she swears she didn't commit. Looked decent. No longer showing in the Omniplex - I was lucky to get to see it. Films don't show here for as long as in London.
Again, an empty cinema - I think that's the third time it's happened to me, here. I was in time for the trailers - all for films I might be interested in, that aren't showing around here yet. And so to the main feature. This film spends most of its time in Marseille - although Matt Damon's character is a redneck, he's an unusual one, jetting off to the south of France so often. His daughter has always protested her innocence, but there is no new evidence and she seems stuck where she is. He takes her laundry for washing, brings photos from home and so on. It's a routine - until one day, she begs him to pass a letter to her lawyer. She gabbles some story about a professor at her college (she started out as a student there), who runs the outreach programme, one of whose students mentioned to him that she met a guy at a party, who was bragging about having killed a girl five years ago. Which is when the murder that Abigail Breslin is in for was committed..
So of course, this is the story of what happened next. It's nearly 2.5 hours long, and needs all of it - the story is complicated enough, with so many twists and turns. And it is fascinating! It's a long time since I saw a film with such a good plot. To start with, the lawyer isn't interested in this letter - says this judge will not reopen the case without new evidence, and what's mentioned in the letter is hearsay. So Matt Damon decides to quit his job in the US and move to Marseille, where he picks up a job in construction and spends his free time trying to find this guy. He also finds a nice French lady to translate the letter for him (it's in French), and ends up moving in with her and her daughter, who provide a sort of surrogate family for him.
Marseille is as grimy as I remember - this is one of the places in the world where I was robbed, and I remember the streets at night feeling menacing (although it wasn't at night that I fell victim). I also remember hearing the sound of the sea, and being completely unable to find the way down to it! (Ah, Google Maps has made life so much easier..)
The story is quite compelling, beautifully finished, with a credible twist - not often you see that. Highly recommended.
Afterwards, I didn't really feel like getting a takeaway, so I didn't. Had to be up early for the car valeting, next morning, so I didn't blog - and wouldn't you know it, the valeting took four hours! Well, nice to know they took some care over it - sure enough, she did a smashing job, the car is now spick and span, inside and out, and fragrant with it. Me, I sat in a park up the road for most of the time - played this phone game I've got into during lockdown, and fielded several messages. First up was my mother, wanting to know what was this Garda letter she got this morning, about having reported a crime.. Then the Gardaí themselves were on to me, wanting to check whether she'd be in that day - so I got the chance to explain to them that she only took the phone call, then passed it to me when things got complicated. In other words, she knew nothing about the internet side - which I was assured they wouldn't confuse her with. Finally, work was on, wanting to know the status of this and that - sounds like I picked a good week to be off-duty! Chaotic as ever.
Anyway, I was happy not to be there during the Garda interview - explaining things to her would be hard enough, without an audience. Still, I did wonder when on earth this car was going to be done.. it was a relief, finally, to be able to sit in the car, and gee, Tesco left it until I arrived to make their delivery! A long, tough day..
And today was another, starting with an unexpected phone call from a private number. When I heard my mother talking to someone about money having been taken from her account, I was on tenterhooks - until she reassured me that the call was from the bank, to confirm that the money had been restored. Oh man, that hasn't even sunk in yet - but what a relief. Next was my mother's trip to the doctor. Who took bloods, so I had an unexpected detour to take them to Ennis Hospital for analysis. Then I had to drag her to the bank, so that they could stare at her, and at her photo ID, so they'd unblock her internet banking and I could change the PIN - which I'm a bit suspicious had been compromised. Better safe than sorry.. but what a palaver! I did all the actual work, all she had to do was sit there. Honestly, this bank is so old-fashioned - couldn't they just have accepted her ID over a videocall? Like more progressive banks? Well, it's done now.. But with everything, I'm exhausted. And happy - that's most of this week's work over!
Tonight's film on tv was Vice, which had passed on my radar but I'd never gotten around to seeing. So that was a must-see.. a skit on the life and career of Dick Cheney, it stars a mostly unrecognisable Christian Bale as the man himself, with Amy Adams as his wife, Steve Carell as his mentor, Donald Rumsfeld, and Sam Rockwell in an Oscar-nominated role as George W. Bush, the president under whom Cheney was vice-president.
Unfortunately, my mother had absolutely no interest in this, and it improved for me massively when I moved upstairs to bed to watch it, and didn't have to try and listen while she was talking over it, or boiling the kettle.. Also, being close enough to see the explanatory text helped. With that caveat, I did find it more enjoyable when he'd come to power - and this is a scathing indictment of everything he caused to come to pass, with a very blatant liberal agenda. Which they freely admit - keep watching over the closing credits, there's a hilarious focus group scene, mimicking some that had happened before: but in this case, people are asked to vote on whether they thought the film had a liberal agenda. And then debate it. So when one guy accuses another of being a liberal, the man retorts that well, if that's what you call someone who supports the facts.. because the film is composed of facts.. And a fight breaks out. Of course.
Every time a decision is made in Washington, there's an accompanying scene of people in Arab clothing, being blown up in the desert. And there's a frightening analysis of this administration's attitude to power - Cheney having a free rein because of the gormless president he serves under. Rockwell makes a great George Dubya - and the naturally funny Steve Carell lights up his scenes. However, despite the tv guide describing this as a comedy, that's not exactly how I'd classify it. Yup, I really liked this - beware, if your taste leans towards the more conservative, you might be annoyed. But I thought this was excellent.
Well, nothing left in the cinemas that I want to see! Between shorter showing times than I'm used to, and a much smaller range to start with, of course, I've completely exhausted everything I could be bothered seeing. Sorry, but not even desperation is going to make me try the dubious comedies that provide the only alternative to all the kids' films.. Roll on Friday, and a new film list. I would source stuff online again, but simply haven't had time. Finally getting my hair cut tomorrow - first professional cut since February last year. NEVER AGAIN do I want long hair. Very glad it was pushed back by an hour, though - apparently, the stylist who was to attend me has to get a Covid test, and I've been assigned someone else, who can't take me at the original time. So I'll get a nice lie-in..!
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