Movie Monday 7/26

I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

With all we had going on last week, we didn't have time for any family movies, but Ken and I watched a couple this weekend.  What a treat to start a movie at 7 pm so we didn't have to stay up too late!  (I know, don't we sound like a couple of old fogies??  Wild times with the kids gone.).  So, we watched:

• Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford.  A really excellent, thought-provoking film.  With Redford at the helm, it has some political overtones, but mostly, it just makes you think about some important issues.  The movie follows several different but related stories about the war in Afghanistan:  a slick and self-important senator (played by Tom Cruise - not much of a stretch!) shares his new strategy for Afghanistan with an experienced reporter (played by Meryl Streep); a political science professor (Redford) tells an underachieving student about two of his former students whom he greatly admires who are now fighting in Afghanistan; and the two students themselves, currently stuck behind enemy lines.  It's a powerful story about how war starts, how it is perpetuated, who is responsible when things go wrong, and the brave men and women fighting for all of us.  I found myself thinking about it all weekend.
• The Girl Who Played with Fire (Swedish film with subtitles).  My neighbor and I went to see the movie based on the second book of Stieg Larsson's runaway hit series.  In case you're counting, that makes 3 movies in a theater in one week for me!  Quite a record.  The second movie was just as amazing as the first, though I think best enjoyed if you've already read the book.  It's a very complex story, and they had to compress it quite a bit to even fit it into 2 1/2 hours.  Hollywood is at work on an English-version, but I don't see how it can ever be as good as the Swedish films.  The actors were perfectly cast.
• Heights, starring Glenn Close.  sigh...this one comes with a rather embarrassing - though not unique - story.   Here's our conversation during the movie:

5 minutes in:
Me:  Have we seen this before?  Some of the characters look familiar.
Ken:  Maybe.

10 minutes in:
Ken:  I think we have seen this before.
Me:  Yeah, maybe.

20 minutes in:
Me:  We definitely saw this before.
Ken:  yeah, we did.
Me: Do you remember how it ends?
Ken:  No.

So, we watched it all again!  It was more and more familiar as we watched.  This is not the first time we've done this!  Anyway, it's about the intersecting lives of several people in NYC.  They are mostly artsy types and their lives are mostly self-destructing.  It does end with a tiny bit of hope, but it's mostly a downer of a movie.  Not one of our favorites.

Have you seen any good movies lately?