Perhaps viewing these films was leftover anniversary and Valentine sentiment or a mere coincidence, I’m not quite certain.  Whatever the case, they are quite good, yet very different.  I hate for life to be boring.  The first, starring the lovely Vanessa Paradis (again, so soon?) as Adele  and the dapper Daniel Auteuil as Gabor.  Both are misfits, of sorts, Adele hopeless with men and love, and Gabor just plain unlucky.  They meet one night on a bridge in Paris, Gabor convincing the vulnerable Adele not to jump to her death.  As well, he has a proposition for her, to join him in his knife-throwing act.  She agrees, somewhat reluctantly, but knows she has nothing left to lose.  Their act, and the film on the whole, is sensual and erotic, despite their platonic relationship.  The pair is a massive hit, and they make money wherever they go, at small town fairs and big casinos alike – sharing a preternatural gift.  Everything goes south when Adele, lured by the illusion of love with a newlywed man, leaves Gabor, changing both of their luck, for it only exists in tandem.  A bewitchingly beautiful black and white (I love alliteration!) about love, trust, and the deepest of human connections.

Imagine if you could, at the ripe age of fourteen, know the precise moment you will meet the ONE and fall impossibly and forever in love.  All you need is a TiMER for $79.99, plus a monthly maintenance fee, inserted in your wrist (like having your ears pierced, but a little worse), and you will forgo the pain and inconvenience of all that wondering.  Splendid and so very Los Angeles, where the film takes place.  The only problem is that not everyone has a TiMER, leaving some singles to look desperately at theirs, like a stop watch waiting to be started.  This is the case for Oona, nearing her 30th birthday and feeling a bit desperate.  She really wants to meet the one, or at least know that he’s out there, somewhere.  Then she meets Mikey, a good-humored grocery store clerk with a TiMER set to go off in four months time.  Should she date him, even though she knows he’s not the one, or continue to get involved with TiMERless men, hoping they’ll be it?  She decides to go for it, despite her family’s initial disapproval, and, in the process, learns a bit about true love and serendipity.

Hello Everyone –

I hope you had a lovely weekend of fun and Superbowl watching, if that’s what floats your boat.  I thought I might catch a bit, but it was already over, whoops.  I saw the score, however, so it likely wasn’t a boring game, which is always nice.  As for my activity, I was a couch potato nearly the whole weekend with a sinus infection and fever, the low-light being one hour-long throbbing of my right ear.  No wonder babies scream when they get ear infections – they hurt!  It was a right party, I tell you.

As the hubster wasn’t much better off than I, we were pretty lazy on the whole, going out for lunch, ordering pizza and hot wings, and making simple dishes a little spicy, hoping to burn the h-e-double hockey sticks out of our virus laden bodies.  It didn’t go as well as we hoped, as we blasted (pun intended – gross) through more than one box of tissue and continue to feel under the weather, though we were certainly well fed.

Since it took a lot of energy to roll from my side to my back, and reading complete sentences was a might tricky (the cat in the, what?  Oh yes, hat!) I watched a lot, lot, lot of television (save that big event) and streaming Netflix movies.  Broken record alert!  I love streaming movies!  I really do!  These are the highlights, though don’t go and get sick just to watch them.  Stay healthy…

Heartbreaker is a hilarious and sweet French export with some pretty awesome eye candy: Vanessa Paradis (Johnny Depp’s sweetheart) for the fellas, Romain Duris for the ladies, great fashion, and beautiful sites like Morocco, Paris, and Monte Carlo (we had one of the cars growing up – 1977, powder blue, drove like a dream – love!).  Romain Duris plays Alex, a professional relationship wrecker.  He and his team (his sister and her husband) will travel far and wide to break up a couple in high style and with a lot of high tech help.  These people are very savvy!  Their latest job has them grasping at straws, wondering if the couple is truly meant for each other.  Along the way, Alex falls in love, complicating things further.  It’s a fun, keep-you-guessing type story with crazy gaffes and one liners.

Brett (Sara Michelle Geller – Buffy!) is an aspiring associate editor at a small publishing firm in New York.  She is eager to become a full editor, and move forward in life, but with a new and slightly wicked boss and concerns that she’s even good at what she does, she’s having a difficult time.  Her life is upturned when she meets Archie Knox (Alec Baldwin), a big wig in the publishing world, and they begin a romance.  It is a tender and complicated relationship, as he’s nearly as old as her parents and is carrying a bit of baggage himself.  A very real glimpse into the life changing moments that define who we truly are.  As well, I never thought of Alec Baldwin as a romantic lead before, but in those Cary Grant glasses and driving that car (you’ll see), I am a changed woman.  Sweet.

As per our usual, we watched a slew of movies and television shows via Netflix this past holiday season.  Just in case your queue (I love spelling that word) needs a little inspiration, these stand out from the crowd.

Slings and Arrows – In this utterly delightful Canadian television series, watch the behind the scenes drama (sometimes melodrama) at a small town Shakespeare festival after the much heralded artistic director Oliver Welles dies (hit by a ham truck, of all things) and his one time protégé takes the helm.  Geoffrey does his best to navigate the often tricky waters of putting on a play – the actors and their idiosyncrasies, the buffoonery of the man in charge, and his personal demons, not to mention Oliver’s ghost, eager to interfere at every turn.  Each season is centered around the production of a Shakespearean play, and the drama often follows a similar course.  It’s fun, serious, sometimes quite sad, very entertaining, and a great reminder of the genius of Shakespeare.  Plus those Canadian accents, sore-ee!

Jason Schwartzman plays Jonathan Ames, a writer, who, in a fit of desperation after his girlfriend leaves him and a lack of motivation to work on his novel (ahem), decides to become an unlicensed private detective in New York City.  After all, he’s read plenty of crime novels, so it can’t be that difficult, right?  As you might imagine, what ensues is an often madcap and wacky adventure to find lost family members and skateboards, among other things.  His sidekicks and good friends are a comic book writer (funny man Zach Galifianakis) and a rather vain and sometimes slimy, yet totally likable magazine editor George (Ted Danson).

A very fascinating look at the life of Genghis Khan before all of that conquering.  At this stage in his life he simply is Temudjin:  from a boy learning to choose a bride, to an exile and slave.  He is honest, loving, fiercely loyal, and decent, despite all that surrounds him.  A gorgeous film of determination and perseverance.  This is part one of a trilogy, I believe.  I am curious to see the transformation.

A taut thriller, it had my stomach in knots.  Jackie is a CCTV observer in Glasgow, every day watching over the same small sliver of the city, getting to know its inhabitants and protecting them from crime.  Then one day, she sees a man she wasn’t expecting, one part of a tragic past, though we don’t know exactly.  She begins to follow him, to accomplish who knows what, and we’re along for the scary ride.

Imagine how different your childhood would be if you lived in an old folk’s home: parents more keen on taking care of the aged than you, difficulty talking with people your own age, a near pathological obsession with death and the afterlife, and a mad desire for normalcy and a space of your own.  This is Edward’s (Bill Milner – also great in Son of Rambow) existence until Clarence (the brilliant Michael Caine) comes along and teaches him a thing or two about living, magic, love, and loss.

A strange look at the world were it possible to have your soul removed, the 95% of it not critical to existence, anyway.  Paul Giamatti plays himself, an actor overwrought with his latest role.  In a desperate act to ease his burden, he decides to extract his soul for a few weeks, just to take the edge off.  Unfortunately, it gets stolen, and what ensues is a rather complicated journey into his own life and marriage, the soul of the woman he’s taken in the meantime,  and a cold Russian winter.

The not always funny but nearly always entertaining life of the comedienne and workaholic of the first degree, neuroses and insecurities front and center.  I hope to have half of her energy and drive at seventy-five!

Jeff Johnson, a man inspired by the epic 1968 South American adventure of Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins (the founders of Patagonia and the North Face, respectively) finds himself traveling south in the same spirit.  Sailing, surfing, and climbing his way through dilemmas personal, environmental, and technical, it is a visually stunning, interesting and thoughtful look at the ways we find fulfillment and redemption, the degradation of the planet, and our desire for more.