It rained all night. I think we needed it and the air is so fresh. My husband and I did a Saturday night double feature, seeing the 1930s Alice in Wonderland with Cary Grant and Gary Cooper and many other great actors of the 30s, then watched Inception. So we were into dreamlife last night. I found the Alice charming, thought being in black and white seemed illogical. But it had a delightful actress as Alice, and a lot of funny bits, plus animation woven in. Inception struck us both as a film with too many loose threads and messiness, when it should have played to its strengths. My husband said it was a movie with two characters and a bunch of action heroes, and that was one of it's major problems. Marion Cotillard and Leonardo di Caprio were first rate, but they made everyone else seem cardboard. I wanted to see more of the theme of loss and memory, but Nolan muddied the waters with too much talk and not enough coherence. And the "architecture" of the scenes was not original enough or interesting, except for the one scene with the streets going perpendicular (an idea stolen from those laminated maps of Paris that I use when I travel there) and the glass doors. Ellen Page was horribly miscast as the architect, and it hurt the whole movie. I am still in love with Ken Watanabe. That love will never die.
After two dream themed films, the only dream I remember having is about my baseball team winning the World Series, so evidently I would be a totally banal architect. And it probably says something about Inception, that it did not disturb me, which, if it was a great film, it would do. Alice, well, Alice is a delight, but not troubling in any way. Her dream seems benign, and logical as well, even if there is a political metalanguage throughout. In her world, escape is possible, and return comforting, with all the frustrations and confusions worked out. Her dreaming resolves conflicts.
Well, back to the Sunday papers, and then my mystery, until I do a collage workshop and have dinner with our kids for our older son's birthday. The days are whizzing by like a dream, and this part of growing older is definitely disturbing!
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