there is more to life...

Okay, so one aspect of my life is a swirling vortex of suck-a-tude-- I know that I will come out the other end just fine and a little wiser.

But there is more to life- like my 39th- yes- 39th birthday!! last Friday. I ordered a beer and I was carded! asked for my id- as if I hadn't had 18 years of legal drinking under my belt. That was cool. J and I saw "The Good Shepherd"- so, here a few movie reviews my friends:

"The Good Shepherd" Matt Damon stars as one of the founding spies of the CIA. The film gets you into the world of soul-less, WASP Yale skull & bonesmen that founded the CIA back at the outbreak of the second World War. These wonderbread whitey- white men use their power to manipulate events as they see fit. While the film does draw out their arrogance and sense of entitlement (hmm...sound like another Yalie bonesman in office right now?) The film is also very fascinating and suspenseful as events unfold from the second world war through to the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The film cleverly spools out that age-old ethical delimma- when, if ever, do the ends justify the means? When are the means so bad that no desirable end could justify them?

The other aspect of the film is that there is no happy homelife when you're a spy and have to be overseas years at a time. Especially when you accidently knock-up a crazy Angelina Jolie. Angelina is hopelessly mis-cast as a WASP-y sister of one of Damon's fellow Yalies. Yea, right. First of all, she is too gorgeous and exotic for this role. She is fiery and passionate and is called upon to emotionally flip out in every scene she is in...the rest of the film is so understated her scenes seem a jarring departure. Besides, the role would have been much better served by someone who looked like a WASP and would play it understated and brittle. I would have cast Laura Linney who I think is a wonderful acctress and can transmit emotions much more subtly. Besides, I think Angelina's portrayal was much too strong. The character from her actions/storyline would be less powerful and more insecure.

Damon was surprisingly good in the film- though he's supposed to age 23 years and never really got there. There were some small historical inaccuracies but otherwise very good. Look for great smaller performances from William Hurt, Robert DeNiro and Alec Baldwin.

"Letters from Iwo Jima"- I saw this yesterday. Sometimes a film stays with you and haunts you a bit...this is one of those films. A fantastic war film. It is a gripping story of the battle of Iwo Jima told from the Japanese perspective. It is sub-titled. Ken Wantanabe plays the General sent to make Japan's stand at Iwo Jima knowing that Japanese honor requires that they die trying to hold on to the island and stave off the Americans successful onslaught. The other main character is a reluctant and incompetent simple solider. A baker in civilian life, and forced into military service his simplicity and honesty adds much to the story. The movie (at least for me) exposed my cultural ignorance of Japanese codes of honor and culture of this era. Also, of Japanese military culture and structures. The film does well on many levels- not only amazing stark and frightening battle scenes, but also on loss. Each man realizes that the Empire of Japan is ending and that they will lose this war. Each man also realizes that they will die on this horrible, foreboding windswept island. The island seems like another character in the film, almost like a harbinger of the destruction that is to come. Every scene operates on several levels.

Note for people sensitive to violence (I include myself) there is a suicide scene that is horribly gruesome. I couldn't watch it all the way through. This being a war film, of course there are scenes of violence that are standard for a war film, but this one scene was like nothing I had seen before- pretty horrible.

All in all and excellent and engrossing film. I can't think of a war film to compare it to- it stands alone.

Well, that's all from the multi-plex- two thumbs up.