Arctic Ice

Winter is about to set in although you wouldn’t feel it in Toronto. With temperatures sitting at about 8 degrees, which I would call decidedly balmy, it is any wonder that this is happening?

And having watched Al Gore this week on Oprah, and still digesting Heat, although I’m only 47 pages in (it’s so scary that I can’t read it any faster), I’m all for making positive changes to save that damn ice. I bought one of our nephews a piece of the Arctic and our only niece a polar bear from WWF, and if everyone does that, buys just one socially responsible gift this holiday season, maybe we can save one small part of it.

It would be a shame for it all to disappear after so many lost their lives trying to map it, discover it and, well, explore it. But not just that, the total and complete repercussions of us melting all of the ice because we hate the bus and refuse to turn the heat down makes me think that there’s never a more appropriate time to care for the earth than the holidays when everyone’s feeling generous and imagining the best in other people.

TRH Movie – The Holiday Redux

My review of The Holiday is now up on Chart. I realized that I sort of missed the chance to talk about the very cute subplot in the movie with Eli Wallach and Kate Winslet, that many other reviewers discussed in detail. And it got me thinking. I had thought about it and then decided I didn’t want to give it away, preferring instead to let the sweeter elements of the film come as a bit of surprise, but now I’m thinking I probably should have at least talked about it as a positive part of the picture.

Too late now. Also too late to sing Naomi Watts’s praises, as the cyber-stalker fellow reminded me in his comments. But she was really very good in The Painted Veil and the more I think about it, the more I like that film.

What can you do? Every sentence is a choice.

Going On A Honeymoon

Yes, almost 11 month and 14 days after the actual event, the RRHB and I finally booked our “honeymoon” yesterday. We’re going to Cuba for a week, spending 5 days in Varadero and 2 in Havana. True that I want to see the country before Castro’s reign comes to an end, but my goodness did I get a shock when the charge went through to my credit card. Ouch!

TRH Movie – The Painted Veil

I skipped my very last dance class for the term yesterday to go see a preview screening of The Painted Veil, Ed Norton’s latest movie, but with very good reason, because the actor/producer was actually in attendance for a Q&A session at the end.

First, the film. Based on a W. Somerset Maugham novella, The Painted Veil takes place, for the most part, in China, where a young doctor (or bacteriologist), Walter Fane (Ed Norton) who is researching infectious diseases and his new wife, Kitty (Naomi Watts). Married after a refreshingly brief courtship that takes place in about two days, the couple finds themselves in an awkward and difficult situation when Kitty begins, and ends, an affair with the Vice-Consul, Charlie Townsend (Liev Shreiber). As a form of punishment, Walter forces Kitty to travel inland to a small village heartbreakingly infected with the worst cholera outbreak in history. Here, in the small village, the two reach an impasse of sorts, where they may not solve all of the problems of their marriage, but they do certainly find an honesty where they communicate openly at long last.

It’s a long movie, with beautiful scenery, and much better than the last thing I saw that was filmed in China, some terrible “rock” video by 30 Seconds to Mars. The Painted Veil is directed by John Curran, who also helmed We Don’t Live Here Anymore, so he’s certainly adept at creating a story that explores the moral ambiguity at the centre of so many human experiences. A sweeping tale that balances out the interior emotional struggles of Walter and Kitty with the more overarching socio-political problems found in China (the rise of the “nationalists,” the fury over British imperialism, and the presence of Catholic missionaries), The Painted Veil is an epic film, one that demands a commitment from its audience, but absolutely rewards you for putting in the effort.

And it must be stated that Toby Jones, who plays Waddington, a left-over soldier stationed in the small village affected by the epidemic, is wonderful. And I can understand why Naomi Watts became so involved in the picture (she’s a co-producer alongside Norton), because it’s quite a juicy part for a woman in a world where the “heroines” are getting younger and younger in films that are more and more vapid.

Now, the actor. So, at the end of the screening, Richard Crouse came back out to introduce Ed Norton and then do a quasi-Inside the Actor’s Studio-type question and answer period. Norton came into the theatre wearing jeans and a lovely dark grey pea coat, which he wore through the entire interview. Part way through he wrapped it even further around himself and hugged his arms in tight like he was maybe a bit unsure of himself and a little nervous, which I didn’t expect.

He’s quite unassuming in person except totally handsome and very clean cut, and he used a lot of big words (etymology, for example) and made cute metaphors (“the characters in the film were exfoliated by China”) and came across super smart and well read, another thing I didn’t expect. He also sounds American when he talks, says Montreal like Mont-re-all, and things like “you all know Ron Livingston, right” in that particular cadence to people like my American “cousins” who all hail from Pennsylvania and such. He looks, well, like a New Yorker, put a toque on him and he could be Morgan Spurlock in Super Size Me, but I digress.

I was such a geek that I took notes about some of the more charming things he said about the movie and his career, just to relay them here:

On Working on The Score with De Niro and Brando:

“It’s a movie I did just to be in the poster.”

And the kid that asked the question told Norton he was a Method actor (“What’s it like to be a third generation Method Actor”), to which he responded by saying, “That’s the first I’m hearing about being a Method Actor.” The kid (a theatre/film student in a pack of theatre/film students sitting beside me and rambling on about how great Death to Smoochy was) said that he read it on the internet, which, of course, cued all clap-trap snark about how unreliable information is on the web. Which almost made me want to stand up and ask whether or not the rumours are true that he’s dating Evan Rachel Wood. But, alas, I am a meek writer who prefers to spread her own rumours online. Annnywaay. He did joke that he could learn a lot about himself by reading the internet. Can’t we all Ed Norton, can’t we all.

About the costume and makeup from The Illusionist:

It’s actually inspired by a comic Dr. Strange. After I told my RRHB this he said, “Oh yeah, totally, there was even a Canadian TV show about Dr. Strange for a while.” Who knew?

On the characterization in The Painted Veil:

“We had to commit to the character’s weaknesses in order to make it real.” I am paraphrasing a bit here but I really liked this idea. In order for the movie to work, Norton said, he and Watts concentrated more on the character flaws rather than their strong points, and he’s absolutely right, it’s what makes the movie work. You do believe that Walter is a bad lover (his example) and that Kitty is vain and silly, which makes their evolution so much more real.

Further, on the love story in The Painted Veil:

Norton is attracted to projects that take him outside of his own comfort zone, but I couldn’t help reading so much more into this statement than was probably intended, “everyone goes through disappointments in seeing the weaknesses in the object of their affection,” but maybe something like this comes more from his own failed relationships in general vs. empathizing with Walter’s inability to make his marriage work in many ways.

About working on the 25th Hour:

(Which I will preface by saying I think is one of my favourite Spike Lee joints). The theatre actor in him loves to rehearse, and he feels his performance in that film ended up being so strong because they did a lot of intense rehearsing before the shoot.

Lastly, he said he was “reluctant to talk about what a film is about,” because he thinks that the job of the person in the audience and what fun would it be just to tell us all what to think. In the end, I’m glad I went, even if the film is one of those Hollywood vanity projects (Norton mentioned he’d always wanted to make a sweeping epic) that many actors create to give themselves work. Instead of being all snarky about that, as I am inclined to do, I’m going to resist and say what does it matter when the end product is clearly a piece of quality work from a surprisingly well spoken, obviously intelligent, well read, and highly talented individual.

Oh, and hot, did I mention that too? He’s totally hunky and hot.

Oh, and the other shocking thing that I did not realize about my own damn self, is that I’ve seen 19 of the 21 titles listed on his imdb.com page, which I was kind of surprised by. Does that mean he’s my male version of Kirsten Dunst?

#65 & #66 – The Secret Mitzvah Of Lucio Burke & Before I Wake

The other day I finished not one but two books I had sort of been reading simultaneously. The first, The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke, was for my online book club, and I’ll be honest, were it not for that, I probably would never have read this lovely and charming first novel. And speaking of first novels, it’s very impressive that Robert J. Wiersema comes right out the gate with his own exceptional book, Before I Wake. Another novel that had I not heard the author read a few weeks ago, I also may have never read.

It’s interesting, when you read two books side by side, to see the contrasts and the differences. Both books deal with issues of faith and fate, with family, love and friendship as secondary themes, and both authors have a gift in terms of crafting very readable stories that tug at your heartstrings. But they are also very different, the first being an historical novel of sorts, the second more of a fantastical commercial fiction-type outing. However, they are now books that I would absolutely recommend to people, if only because it’s a mitzvah in and of itself to support first novels, to herald from the rafters new and exciting talent on the Canadian literary landscape.

Annnywaaay. The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke, set in Toronto in the 1930s, is kind of a buldingsroman, in the sense that the main character, said Lucio Burke, comes of age in the novel alongside the young city of Toronto, which is also growing up, so to speak. There’s a huge cast of characters that surround Lucio, his love interest, Ruthie, his next door neighbour and best friend, Dubie, and both of their families. The book opens with Bloomberg, a minor character who disappears after one fateful day, trying to give away his baseball, making all of the kids hit the ball to see who would end up with it. In the end, no one hits the ball, and this fantastic journey begins where all three characters, Lucio, Dubie and Ruthie, change in many different ways.

As the love story unfolds, a number of almost fantastical things happen, each geared to balance out the idea that many of the events in your life are the products of both fate and faith. And Steven Hayward writes such a convincing yarn that’s so Richler-inspired that it’s easy to be captivated by his charming, witty and truly engaging prose. If I have one slight criticism of this book, it’s that there’s a very long and rather important flashback toward the end, about Lucio’s grandmother, that I thought would have made more sense had it been introduced earlier, especially considering the book’s ending, which takes place during the riots in Christie Pits is just around the corner, it sort of pulled me out. But Hayward, who is himself the narrator “telling” his grandmother’s story, both fiction and non, is adept enough that you just go with it, and my overall feeling is that this is a really, really good first novel.

Now, on to Before I Wake. I am going to honestly say that this book totally and utterly surprised me. It’s not normally the kind of book I would read, that has no bearing on whether or not the book is of quality, but like The Secret Mitzvah of Lucio Burke, it’s not a book I would have picked up on my own, without a little prodding. I know Scarbie read it a while back and really loved it, and the author himself answered some questions on her blog, and she’s been telling me to read it for months. But like I said, until I heard him at the reading a few weeks back, it wasn’t a book that cried out for me to read. I was so wrong.

It’s a sweet story, perfect for holiday reading, about a family that goes through an unspeakable tragedy (their three-year-old daughter is hit by a truck crossing the street and is in a coma) only to find that their daughter is miraculous, not in the way she’s able to recover, but in the fact that she can now heal other people. Coupled with the more fantastical elements of the novel, are the more day-to-day problems regular people deal with as they experience a tragedy.

In some ways, and I know this is a far-out there kind of comparison, but the book almost kind of reminded me of Dogma, which, to this day, is still my favourite Kevin Smith movie. As a girl who struggles a lot with ideas of faith and religion herself, especially the choice to believe or not to believe, I think I liked this book so much because the main characters, Simon and Karen, struggle throughout the book to not only be true to themselves, but to do the right thing in general, even if they don’t necessarily believe in God and/or the miracle of Sherry’s abilities. There’s a mysterious aspect to the book as well, with Henry Denton, the driver of the truck that hit the little girl, fighting his own battles in terms of what happened, where he is now, and what he’s sent back to do.

I can see why the Globe picked it to as a Best Book this year, because it’s a really hard thing to achieve, a totally readable, utterly good piece of commercial fiction that feels to have been written by a thoughtful, compassionate and good first-time novelist.

On the whole, these were two surprises in terms of my reading this year, books that I had made up my mind about before actually giving them a chance, with both proving that, well, you can’t judge a book by your own preconceived notions.

Five Things Meme

Well, I am so honoured, as I’ve never been tagged before! Sniff. My eyes are welling up a little. Okay, so here’s my list:

1. I was born at the Toronto Grace Hospital. For years, while working at the Evil Empire, I stared out my office window at the hospital where I was born.
2. I almost flunked out of graduate school. So much so that one of my professors actually suggested that ‘it might not be for me.’ I was heartbroken.
3. I once tried to re-write Jude the Obscure for a modern audience from Susanna’s point of view. Yeah, it was bad. The first novel I never finished.
4. I have a birthmark on my forehead that many people mistake for dirt.
5. The most embarrassing boy I ever kissed was named Trey. He was a skateboarder from Regina and about five years younger than me. It was in Banff, and Banff is not real life.

Okay, I’m very bad at this tagging thing but here goes: Zesty, my friend with the Yellow Fever and Beth.