Stuff to do, movies instead...

This weekend I was supposed to finish something quite important. So important that i've been thinking about it for more than a week.

So obviously I haven't done it.

(It was filing income tax returns for those who're obsessed with knowing all details. Jeez people, a little privacy please? )


Instead I spent my post-tennis part of Sunday getting duped at a restaurant and watching two brilliant movies that an ex-colleague had given me some time back.

Oh and also, last evening while reading some Calvin & Hobbes, I suddenly thought, what I thought, was a very original question. What would Calvin grow up to be? Unfortunately this is not a very original question and numerous theories are floating around - most of them pointing to 'Jack' (Edward Norton's character in Fight Club). In case you're interested you can read more such theories by:

a. umm..googling...duh
b. http://www.metaphilm.com/philm.php?id=29_0_2_0

But what I really want to write about is this movie I saw with no expectations and which gripped me. It's a very unassuming movie called 'The Visitor' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0857191/ or if you're reading this from office, here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Visitor_(2008_film)

No big stars, this is a movie based on a grieving professor's life and how it changes when he meets a young couple who turn out to be illegal immigrants. The poignancy of the movie is amazing and the way music has been blended into the theme is truly brilliant. The lead actor, playing Walter the professor, has acted brilliantly and as is usually the case with performances I like, his transition from a man who's just given up to the one discovering passion to one loving and losing and feeling the helpless frustration of battling a crazy system is just amazing to watch.

After this I also watched The Bucket List. Yeah, yeah I hadn't seen it till now. It's a fairly good movie but, umm, a bit preachy. I think a bucket list need not have grand things as shown in the movie. These are, in my opinion, the good to have done things but not the things that mean everything in the end. But as usual when you put two stalwarts in Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, you get some brilliant acting and very powerfully delivered dialogues that really move you (while the dialogues are being said. Not too much later). Seeing Jack (from Will and Grace, the sitcom) in a serious role was also quite interesting.


About the duped at a restaurant part - have you ever had watery lasagne?

My point exactly.