The first time

So this week was all about first times and new experiences. It started off last Wednesday, when I learnt how to play a few chords on my five year old guitar. So, my friend Jimmy has decided that he wants to learn guitar and he’s also decided that I’m coming along on the ride with him. The idea that this is a first time experience may sound bizarre given that I referred to my guitar as “the five year old guitar”, but it’s true, it’s a new experience. Five years ago I had a short lived dream that I was going to be the next Jewel (whatever happened to that broad?) I had one guitar lesson with a friend and that was it. My guitar was doomed to a life of dust collecting.

My next first time experience came on Sunday night, when I saw Muse live in concert. I thought the show they put on in terms of the special effects was quite amazing, but I don’t think they as a band transitioned well from studio to stage. Matthew Belamy was a bit “too cool for school”, not conversing with the audience at all. Plus, I think they rely on the sound engineering of the studio a lot to create their unique sound, so the songs did not sound anywhere near as good as they do on CD.

My next first time experience was not at all pleasant and occurred on Tuesday night. I stepped on a bee and got stung. The randomness of this I think will be hard to beat. I stepped on it, not in the park amongst the green grass, but in my bedroom. My bedroom is not located in the country, where the unfortunate create might have lost its way for a mere moment and flown through the window on its way to a sunflower, but rather is located on the outskirts of a busy city. How does that happen? But it did, and I have a swollen, itchy foot to prove it.

My last first time experience occurred last night, when I watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, I have never seen an Indiana Jones movie before. What did I think, well read on!

But before that, I must review On Golden Pond!

MOVIE OF THE WEEK

On Golden Pond

Director: Mark Rydell

Starring: Henry Fonda, Katherine Hepburn and Jane Fonda

Before I talk about On Golden Pond, I have to briefly revert back to last week’s blog. I realised after posting that I didn’t rate a movie of the week. Now, it may have been obvious from the review, but I definitely rated Chariots over Reds. Both good films, but I just felt more after watching Chariots.

So, onto On Golden Pond. This movie reminded me quite a lot of Ordinary People. It was a family drama, only this time the dysfunctional relationship was between father and daughter (characters portrayed by the Fonda’s. I wonder if there is any truth to life imitating art in this case). Well can I just say that I now understand Jane’s fame. You see, I am a child born in the 80s, so by the time I was old enough to understand celebrity, Jane Fonda was the star of her own line of exercise videos. I missed the movie star period. I thought she was really great on screen and just absolutely stunning in terms of looks. It was before super skinny became the pinnacle of beauty and curves were a bit more celebrated. It was also great to see a Hollywood legend like Katherine Hepburn in action. Great casting really!

So what’s the movie about? Well it’s about a family, who are brought back together by a step son and a holiday cabin. The movie starts with retired married couple, Norman (Henry Fonda) and Ethel Fayer (Katherine Hepburn), arriving at their holiday cabin at Golden Pond. George is a retired professor, who is not only having extreme difficulty coming to terms with the fact that he is ageing, but also has a major chip on his shoulder, which has impacted on his relationship with his daughter, Chelsea (Jane Fonda). Norman has reached a point in his life, where he is pretty much just waiting to die. He has little hope for the future, has lost complete confidence in himself due to his memory loss and is totally disconnected from his one and only daughter due to an ongoing feud, stemming from her resentment on how he treated her as a child. Norman’s only reason for living is his wife, Ethel. They have a lasting and true love, the kind of love that could only develop through time and commitment. Whilst, Henry is quite bitter and resentful that he is getting older, Ethel is the complete opposite. She is cheerful and embracing of her age. She views it as an opportunity to spend more time doing what they have always wanted to do, like spending time at their holiday cabin, picking strawberries and cooking fish. Her catch phrase in the movie is “oh don’t be an old poop”. Whilst she is quite endearing and initially presents as the sweet old lady, the peacemaker in the family, she is quite feisty and has a bit of a wild side. She goes skinny dipping with Chelsea in the film and at its climax, she slaps Chelsea in the face when she speaks derogatorily about Norman, stating “he is also the man I love”.

Chelsea visits Norman and Ethel at Golden Pond, with her new boyfriend Bill Ray and his son, Billy Ray. From the start it is obvious that Chelsea and Norman have issues. Norman is quite cold, constantly making sarcastic comments under his breath and generally being unwelcoming towards her and her new family. Chelsea has been married before and it seems that there is a bit of a back story there, but no detail is given. Chelsea and Bill Ray leave Golden Pond after a few days to go on a trip to Europe and Chelsea asks her mother if they can leave Billy Ray there with her and Norman. In an effort to try and be the peacemaker (whilst she loves Norman, she does appreciate that he has treated Chelsea poorly) she agrees to this. Norman of course is less than enthused, as is Billy Ray.

To the surprise of everybody, especially Norman, he and Billy Ray actually form a really tight bond. They fish together every day and do the things that he should have done with Chelsea as a child. She of course finds this very difficult to accept and this is when she gets into a fight with her mother, resulting in the slapping incident. Of course because this is a movie, instead of hating both her parents, she has an epiphany. She discovers that she is being a victim (it’s true) and takes charge, by talking to her father and asking him to be open to changing their relationship. She seals the deal, by doing a back flip off the dock, something she could never do as a child because according to Norman she was “too fat”. The movie ends with a sense of hopefulness, with Norman and Ethel strong as ever, Chelsea and Norman committed to improving their relationship, Chelsea and Bill Ray becoming engaged (and I guess this time around her relationship might work because she is resolving her “daddy issues”) and Billy Ray having a more stable home life (no details are provided, but it is insinuated that his relationship with his mother has broken down and that is why he is living with Chelsea and his Dad).

I really enjoyed the movie actually. I thought Ethel was a fantastic character. Kind and gentle, motherly, but also feisty, kinky and funny. I felt for both Norman and Chelsea, which as I always say, if a movie can make you feel something then in my opinion it’s a good movie. I understand why Chelsea is so resentful and angry with her father. He treated her poorly and continued to do so. But I also felt for Norman, because for whatever reason he could not express his love for his daughter. Unlike in Ordinary People where it is obvious the mother just doesn’t love her son, this movie is different. Norman does love Chelsea. This is evidenced when he and Billy Ray are out fishing and he keeps accidentally calling him Chelsea, like the experience of being out there reminds him of when she was a child. For whatever reason he is stunted and unable to tell her. Sad sad sad. But all ends well, which is nice.

Overall I give it at 6.5/10!!

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Ark

Director: Stephen Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Karen Allen and Paul Freeman

So, it may sound crazy, but yes, I have never seen Indiana Jones before. I was expecting your sort of typical run of the mill, die hard style, action movie. But as my friend Chris said, it was “fun”. I don’t know about anybody else, but when I was a little girl, my Dad used to refer to the evil characters in the movie as the “badies” and the protagonist or hero if you will and his side kicks as the “goodies”. This movie is definitely your goodie vs badie variety movie. Basically it is about this kick arse archaeologist, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) who is hired by the U.S. government to obtain the missing ark, which holds the broken pieces of the tablet that Moses carried down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments on it. Indy is trying to get to this before the Nazis. This movie is definitely action, but almost silly. There is no real gore, but rather slap stick sort of violence. You know where it looks completely fake, but it’s almost supposed to. Like the director is just having a crazy fun time with the audience.

As a whole, I thought the story was quite weak. Just a typical adventure movie. I’m not really getting why it was nominated for an Academy Award. Maybe it was the first of its kind. The stunts were pretty amazing. But I thought the most puzzling part was the end. It went all supernatural, which was weird because it really had no other supernatural elements. The German’s steal the ark from Indy and they take it to a secret island (they steal it from him on the sea, whilst he is taking the ark back to America). They open that ark and I guess the power trapped in it comes out and kills them all (like it literally melts their faces off). Indy and Marion (Karen Allen), the leading lady and Indy’s love interest, survive because they don’t look directly at the light coming out of the ark. Random random! In the end Indy takes it back to America and the secret service take it off him. The last scene is this ware house man, transporting the ark in a wooden crate, into a secret warehouse, where there are literally hundreds of other crates with “top secret” written on it. I guess this supposed to be a reference to how much the American government keeps secret from the population.

Again, at the risk of being unpopular, I didn’t like it. I found it boring and had to keep asking Tim to tell me what was happening because I kept tuning out.

3/10

Until next week, “good bye little one” (Willow Ufgood, Willow)