Picket Fence Post

There’s this new film that’s recently been released and I’m in a quandary about it. It’s directed by Sam Mendes, the guy who directed last year’s major downer, 1950s-era Revolutionary Road  starring the wonderful Kate Winslet. I went into that film with big expectations, seeing that I’m such a Winslet fan, plus I was suckered in by the trailer. However as much as I wanted to, alas, I absolutely did not like the film. Hated the ending. And whenever I looked at Leonardo DiCaprio playing the thirtysomething suburban dad who takes the train into the city to work, I just kept thinking, “He’s no Don Draper.” (For the uninitiated few, Don Draper is the lead character – played by Jon Hamm – on the amazing AMC drama Mad Men.)

There were people in the theater watching Revolutionary Road with The Spouse and me, fellow suburban dwellers, who were laughing out loud at parts that were NOT funny, or at least they weren’t intended to be gut-busters. Afterwards, while I was in the restroom, a couple of women, friends I’m guessing, who’d seen the film spied The Spouse waiting in the hall and told him they felt sorry that he’d had to sit through it. One remarked, “My husband would kill me if I made him go see this.”

Hence my hesitation with Mendes’ new film, Away We Go, about a thirtysomething, unmarried and unmoored couple who are about to become first-time parents. After learning that the man’s parents are moving to another country, the couple decides they need to find the best location in which to raise their baby and, perhaps, be in close proximity to some family and friends. Their journey takes them to visit said friends and family all over the place where they observe all variety of parenting styles and attitudes, from completely laissez faire to some serious attachment parenting. It stars The Office’s John Krasinski and Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph.

Although it’s garnered mixed reviews, I’m still tempted to see it because I don’t think I can rely on the movie reviewers, seeing as though they’re the ones who convinced me to go see Revolutionary Road in the first place. The Spouse and I don’t get to go out to many movies together, so I want to chose which films I see on the silver screen and blow babysitting money on wisely.

Has anyone seen it and if so, what did you think?

Are therea ny films to which you’ve had to literally drag your spouse and later regretted it? (Link to the film trailer here.)

Item #1: An American Girl + Great Depression=Kit Kittredge

Took The Girl to see Kit Kittredge: An American Girl with my neighbors and their daughters, and several plastic, overpriced dolls. Was pleasantly surprised to see that the film, which is set during the Great Depression, didn’t completely sugar-coat the struggles families endured, such as having the bank repossess family houses (and businesses), having to take in boarders to earn money, seeing fathers leave their families in search of employment and having to keep chickens in order to sell their eggs. The story was told through the eyes of grade schooler Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) who, much to my giddy delight, aspired to be a reporter and toiled away in the attic on her typewriter.

“I don’t ever want to live in a Depression,” The Girl told me afterward, saying that it must’ve been “very hard and awful.” Days later, she used one of the ancient, manual typewriters I have in my office and typed out her very own summary of the film. A sample of The Girl’s summary: “Kit and Ruthy and their school class had to help in the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen was a place where people who needed food could eat. When they got there Kit saw her father. Then she knew he had lost his job. She was right.”

Item #2: TCM’s ‘Essentials Jr.’

Speaking of Abigail Breslin . . . she and her Kittredge co-star Chris O’Donnell have been co-hosting a Sunday night series on the Turner Classic Movies channel called, TCM Essentials Jr., where, each week, a classic, family friendly film is aired at 8 p.m. This week’s feature is Meet Me in St. Louis, a film, which I am embarrassed to say, I’ve never seen but one that Breslin says is a favorite of hers. Other upcoming films to be aired: Roman Holiday on August 3 and Yours, Mine and Ours on August 24.

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