Take Five
By George Rose
July 14, 2009
The boy grows up, becomes a law student and BY COMPLETE CHANCE his class is invited to witness the court hearings of six women accused of murdering Jews. Naturally, one of these women is Hannah. After the plot took this unexpected turn, and for some reason Greek cinema finds it necessary to have a five minute intermission after only an hour of a movie, I hoped it would be over soon but knew it would not be. Plus, my thigh was starting to hurt from all the leg rubbing the cougar had put me through. I should have bought her some popcorn too. If only I were more of a gentlemen.
Then, after Hannah is sentenced, the credits roll. Just kidding, but the nudity sure does stop around this point so I'm hoping the credits are on their way. Not because the movie isn't good, but because now my cougar is bored without the nudity and is nearly assaulting me in front of the entire audience. This is no joke, since standard movie etiquette does not apply here. You can smoke cigarettes, buy booze at the concession stand and ravage your movie-going partner all you like. Anyway, there are more parts about Hannah in prison and more about her young lover's life after he watches his one-time-affair take the fall for murders she really wasn't entirely for. It's very dramatic and, to be quite honest, all very heartfelt. But then some things happen, which I will not reveal because they really are quite shocking, which left me disappointed in the way these characters developed. In any case, I thank God I don't have an oppressed German mindset.
The movie ends a few moments later, but not until after they throw in an unnecessary scene with one of the children of a German camp victim that Hannah helped to terminate. I understand not all movies have happy endings, but if mistakes are made people should learn from them, even if they don't end the movie with a fairy tale romance. Everyone in this movie is bitter and jaded, and it left me in such a funk I couldn't even go to the bars later that night with a smile on my face. There are, however, two reasons this movie should be watched. 1) The acting is superb. Everyone is believable, even if what they're doing makes me want to rip my hair out. 2) Kate Winslet. She deserved the Academy Award she received and more than deserves the title as "most acclaimed" of the recent crop of actresses. I could watch her watching paint dry for two hours. I wouldn't even mind if she was naked, much like she was for the first third of The Reader. The woman is brilliant. If only she were my naïve cougar.
Overall Rating: B+
Interview with the Vampire (1994) – watched/written on July 12, 2009
I didn't leave the house today since I am nursing another bad hangover and wanted to avoid seeing the cougar, for fear she might want me to take things to the next level. I'm afraid she still has The Reader on her mind and will expect our "affair" to advance as quickly as Kate Winslet's. Instead of going out, I read David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day and watched Interview with the Vampire. One thing I desperately miss about America is my HBO subscription and, more importantly, the ability to watch True Blood on Sunday nights. In honor of my bloodlust for vampires, I found this movie to be the most suitable replacement.
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