Mystery at Garden Cottage

Cinema City allows you to take your drinks into the auditorium, which is rather nice. The girl behind the bar pointed out that Patience and I could get a bottle to take with us for only slightly more than a glass of wine each, so we drank our way through a bottle of Pino Grigio during the film, which helped to take the edge off the slow bits. (I hasten to add that Chris was driving...)

Not a great movie. I thought Jamie Foxx was disappointing, and the story (relationship between schizophrenic cello player and cynical LA Times journo) had a terrible tinge of Hollywood sentimentality about it. But for Chris and Patience it carried a different set of meanings. They have a twenty-something-year old son, Eddie, who has Aspergers Syndrome and has pretty much dropped off society's radar. The argument in the film for NOT giving drugs to mentally ill people who don't want them had a lot of resonance for them. and was one of the film's plus points. For me, the worst bit was the psychedelic computer-generated vividly coloured twirly bits that were supposed (I think) to indicate the cellist's state of mind when listening to a live orchestra playing Beethoven. Please. Can we not take that leap ourselves? Joe Wright, shame on you. I think that little sequence was taking "Show, don't tell" (every director's mantra) a little too far... Could we not just have looked at Nathaniel's face and made that imaginative leap ourselves? But maybe the idea was imposed on JW by some committee of producers. Sorry, that was a little slip of professional bitterness creeping in.

Anyway, we had a jolly ride home, giggled a lot and arrived back in Bradbury at 11.30pm. My mysterious next-door-neighbours, the Duffields, were actually IN, which is a rarity. Their 4x4 was parked outside the house with all its lights on. It had been like that when I left at 8pm, and I had assumed they were just arriving (I couldn't see if there was anyone at the wheel in the dark). So why it was still like that three and a half hours later I don't know. For some inexplicable reason their dog seems to spend a lot of its time living in the back of the car. Is that why? Just one of the many unanswered questions about the Duffields and the ill-fated Garden Cottage which they occupy. Everyone who moves there seems to be either odd, unhappy, or about to screw up their relationship. Time will tell which category the Duffields occupy.

Half an hour of watching Entourage before bed. I still love that show!