Sunday, November 29, 2015

Accidental Day at the Movies --- Day 4/293

Walk: AMC Van Ness (Spotlight x 2, Trumbo)
Distance: 3.5 miles, small yoga



Ah, yes, it is definitely that time of year.  Ciwt decided to get her Thanksgiving weekend movie going over early today.  So she got up with the sun, put on her down coat, wool hat and fingerless gloves and hiked 1.8 miles to the theater.  (It's cold here)  When she got to the theater she noticed the line was particularly slow - especially for such an early hour.  People were standing talking to the ticket window for huge periods of time.  Then when it was finally her turn to buy her ticket, she understood why.  The show time had been changed - even though the paper hadn't been alerted.  Everybody was as surprised as she and had to come up with a new plan at the ticket window.

Ciwt didn't want to walk the 3.6 round trip home and back in the cold for the later show she'd come to see.  So, she settled on seeing Spotlight one more time (it held up), reading bits of City on Fire on her Kindle, doing some yoga in her spacious theater seat, walking around the theater a bit and then going to the movie she'd come to the theater for: Trumbo.  Altogether a 7 hour day at AMC Van Ness.

Bryan Cranston was his usual great as Trumbo, and, surprisingly, Helen Mirren played the one role Ciwt has seen that even she couldn't pull off.  Her Hedda Hopper just wasn't interesting or captivating; she didn't have the depth for either of those qualities or for much besides wearing hats and bright pink lipstick.  Maybe Hopper's trivialness, aggressive judgementalism and unlikeability was intentional on Mirren's part because Hopper's anti-communist activities ruined (or even killed) many lives throughout Hollywood in the McCarthy era.

Not a movie for everyone - Ciwt can not imagine anyone under 60 being interested in it.  But for Ciwt staying for Trumbo - with all the gorgeous clothes, cars, stars and recreation of the 40's, 50's and 60's in Hollywood was definitely worth her accidental day at the movies.

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