The Writer's Poke

My daughter loves this movie, and a few years ago on a Greenland cruise, we must have watched it a dozen times. In fact, this might very well be the movie that I've re-watched the most out of every other movie ever made. Weird thought.  Although I'm not going to try to convince you that it's a perfect 5-star movie, I will argue that it's really good for a comedy. Really good. The reason has a lot to do with the Anne Hathaway/Rebel Wilson pairing. They just play off of each other so well. They work together visually, too. Just something about them reminds me of Laurel and Hardy... well, maybe not, but still, I like this pairing. You would never expect Anne Hathaway to be funny, but she is perfect in this comedic role. Sometimes all she has to do is react to Wilson's over-the-top physical comedy. One facial expression from Hathaway says it all.  Josephine (Hathaway) and Penny (Wilson) are complete opposites. One is sophisticated, the other is raunchy. One is a master ...

This movie had people crying in the theater at one point. I heard multiple people trying to control their sobs.  * When I was looking to buy tickets last weekend, I knew I wanted to see this film in IMAX, but the closest IMAX theaters were already almost fully booked. So, I thought, surely there will be less demand midweek. But it turns out that even the Tuesday 10 p.m. screening, the one I went to, was packed. Who are all these people? I wondered. And why are they so interested in The Odyssey? I still remember being a Graduate Student at the University of Mississippi 25 years ago. One of my jobs then was to assist a Professor with his World Literature class. This is when I first really studied The Odyssey, and while I loved it, I don't remember the undergrads in the class being overly thrilled about it. The story was there on the page, but it doesn't as easily "come to life" as Nolan's vision of it does.  And so, my thoughts about the audience I was watching the ...