A post in which I gather together a lot of stuff – recent reads, views, etc.
* I’ve been pretty occupied over the past week trying to pull together a project. The project is really – and don’t deny it, Ann! – someone else’s baby, the work of a gifted person who has graciously invited me to step on board with my meager contributions to her brainstorm and creativity, which involved, on my part,  a little bit of writing, organizing, thinking, letter-writing and submitting.  I want to ask for your prayers on this project, but I also hate to because in the shadow of suffering millions, it seems a ridiculous sort of prayer. But then I hope that this project, if brought light in a way that reaches a lot of people, will play some small part in bringing those same people a little closer to Christ, and therefore, more aware that…whatsoever you do for the least of these…
So, with that in mind, I’ll go ahead and ask for your prayers.
* On Sunday, Katie and I saw Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day. It was one of those films that was vaguely enjoyable while you are watching it, and then you sort of doubt your judgment a few hours later, simply because at a distance, the strings of plot contrivance become ever so much more noticeable.
Based on a novel – which I’d rather like to read – it’s the story of A failed governess, played by Frances McDormand, who is fired one more time from a position and sort of slithers/stumbles into a position as a “social secretary” for an apparently ditzy singer and wanna-be musical star played by Amy Adams. The Amy Adams character is playing with three men, two of them for selfish purposes, and during the day which the two spend together, Miss Pettigrew. also accidentally, helps the singer see what is worth spending the rest of her life for.
The posters lead you to believe that the film is about the prim Miss Pettigrew being shocked by the high life, but that is really not the point at all. It’s about the hapless Miss Pettigrew rediscovering that she does, indeed, have something to give. And in that respect, the film has some weight, especially as the events occur in the 1938.
One critic I read didn’t like McDormand, saying that this was a role tailor-made for Emma Thompson. Well, I have to tell you, I spent a bit of this movie thanking Heaven that Emma Thompson wasn’t cast in this role. Not that she would have been bad – she never is – but it would have then become, “Well, of course, it’s Emma Thompson. There she is. In a role tailor-made for her. Again. ”
I found Amy Adams extremely annoying in this movie – the idea was that she was really just a Pittsburgh girl trying to rise above, but she overplayed it horribly.
One of the main reasons I wanted to see this film was that Ciarand Hinds was in it – Hinds played Julius Caesar in Rome. He was pretty good here, although his part was small.
(Actually, Ciarand Hinds was also one of the main reasons I wanted to go to NYC a bit ago and see The Seafarer. Because, you know, I’m always dashing off to The City to see plays with actors from Rome. Or not.)
The most memorable performance, though, came from Shirley Henderson, whom, Katie informs me, plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies. She’s quite striking, both in appearance and voice – on her own, but at times, the part had just the right amount of pathos – good pathos – that grounded the piece in a world approaching reality.
As did my favorite moment in the film, when McDormand and Hinds find themselves alone while all the young bon vivants  are outside oohing and aahing at bombers flying over head.
“They don’t remember the last one,” she says.
A brief silence.
“No they don’t,” he says.
So, in short, a film with potential, unmet. It was…forced, I’d say. Forced.
*Following politics pretty avidly, as usual. Addicted to CNN’s primary night coverage, against my will. I didn’t want to like John King’s Magic Map, but I find myself sucked into it and imagining someone – Raymond Arroyo? Rocco Palmo? – manning a Catholic version, making those dioceses shrink and expand, pulling episcopal vacancies around, shading them according to prevalent party line and loyalty. Pretty awesome. 
They’ve also lined up the best panel, partly because they have no one that I can’t stand. No Keith Olbermann, no Hannity or Colmes, and Larry King only shows up later. Like the Anchoress, I’m putting Donna Brazile on my “Pundits you most disagree with but love the most” list – but then I’ve always liked Brazile. But you throw Begala, Bennett, and the others in there, and you’ve got some watchable stuff. Is it the “B’s?”
*Mother’s Day lunch was memorable. We went to a Mexican restaurant down the road – family run, not a chain. At first, we were all alone (it was around 12:30). I was gifted with a yellow rose by the very suave waiter, and I looked at Katie, knowing exactly what was going through her head: “Please, please..not me.”
For it is Katie’s great fear that when she is with her little brothers, onlookers will think that she is their mother – especially if she’s been given the job of carting Michael. She’ll say things like, “Go to MOMMY” extra loud, just so people don’t enwrap her in a case of Mistaken Identity.
After the waiter gave me the rose, he hesitated and said, “Are there…any other mothers here?” And given that Katie was, you know, the only FEMALE at the table, it was obvious whom the question was about. “No, no – no other mothers.”
But, undeterred, he returned with another yellow rose, declaring to Katie, “Someday – you will be a mother…”
Go to MOMMY…
Then Iron Man came up. Katie had seen it the day before, and Joseph was hankering for it.
“Some of my friends saw it..” he argued.
Katie tossed out, “Then some of your friends have bad parents…” she teased.
“Katie.” Joseph responded in a tone that was both exasperated and definitive. “My friends’ parents who let her see Iron Man…”
(Wait for it)
“They took her to see THE POPE in WASHINGTON, D.C.”
Case closed, apparently, on the “bad parents” rap.