where: CINE ARTS @ PLEASANT HILL in Pleasant Hill, CA
when: Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
show: 9:35 pm
auditorium: 2
seat: 4th row, 10th column
A young white insurance salesman, Burt ( John Krasinski ), is in love with and wants to marry a mulatta ( quadroon, perhaps ) artist named Verona ( Maya Rudolph ), who's pregnant with his first child but does not want to marry him because of a promise she made to her own parents before they died. And his rich hypocritical parents do not seem to cotton to the idea of their son marrying outside of their race as they make the effort to be thousands of miles away by the time the child is born. Left to decide what to do with their seeming directionless lives before their daughter is born, they take to the road to visit with friends and relatives as they weigh their lifestyle options.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) The first bedroom scene; 2.) In Tucson, a mom-tutored boy candidly tells the couple about what he did to a baby; 3.) The tete a tete on the train; 4.) The Fisher-Herrin "hippy/new-age" home in Madison; 5.) The personal revelation by a friend at a club in Montreal; 6.) The "Do you promise" talk as they drift off to sleep on a trampoline in Miami underneath a starry sky; and 7.) The final scene which uses the metaphorical symbolism of a variegated fruits tree.
audience reaction: The audience laughed at the funny scenes in the movie.
recommendation: This movie is the anti-thesis to the usual Hollywood "road trip" fare except that it cannot veer-off the stereotypical assortment of quirky characters that one expects to see in such movies. It was an "okay" movie for me. This is perfect for passing the time away on a hot summer day. Or if you already have other plans, wait for this to come out as a rental.
spoiler alert: There's no strip-tease on "amateur night" at the club, for you horndogs out there. Don't tell me that there are no mosquitoes in Miami! There are mosquitoes here in Vallejo, but they are non-native because all of them have a butt sticker that says, "I (heart) Benicia."
fyi: As the couple enters the Fisher-Herrin residence, L N ( Maggie Gyllenhaal ) welcomes them in with the greeting, "Namaste." This Hindu greeting means: The Holy Spirit which in-dwells me acknowledges and greets the Holy Spirit which in-dwells you. I wouldn't use this greeting in the casual manner that it is used in the movie. First of all, you have to say it with the palms of your hands pressed against each other in front of your chest and accompanied by a slight bowing of your head. Secondly, if you're not spiritually enlightened, you have no business using this greeting. It should be reserved for formal use only by yogis, monks, ascetics, holy men, saints and anybody else who is free from the dangerous bigotry of religion.
L N presents a very wacky concept of child-rearing: The Theory of the Continuum Movement which asserts that the reason for family dysfunctions is the non-enforcement of the Three No S's: No Separation from your child (even if it means breast-feeding the child past the weaning-off stage), No Sugar and No (baby) Strollers. And, in a perfect two-step, her husband chimes-in with the "family bed" and the "Sea Horse Community," capping it all off with the bit about his (yes, HIS) "Electra Complex." Man! and I thought I was flaky; but this couple takes the cake and eats the coo-coo nut flakes, too!
word of advice: Love conquers all.
tidbits: The main reason why I went to see this movie is to double-check on the poster for the movie, MOON, which I saw at this cineplex three days ago ( see my blog on this one ). A concessions clerk and the box-office clerk showed me the poster which had already been removed from the lobby and is now being kept inside the box-office. I was right about my keen observation of said poster. Aren't you glad for the fact that I'm dedicated to giving you, my readers, the most accurate details that I can possibly gather for my movie blogs? Well, you should be because you're getting all this information from me for free since I'm just doing this as a hobby and as a way to "pad my resume" so I will look more credible to publishers and editors the next time that I approach them with a book proposal.
I remember back in college when I dated this German-American girl who was a singer in a Madonna tribute band. Her part-time prostitute mom ( Yes! ) did not approve of me ( the nerve of such a woman) since I'm of mixed race, too; so she hooked-up with this older guy who just got her pregnant then abandoned her. I blamed Madonna for this girl's messed-up life. To add fuel to the fire, I saw pictures of Madonna showing EVERYTHING except for her armpits--she had more hair in one square inch of -pit skin than I do in both armpits! Hairy women are a turn-off for me. Now, whenever I'm driving and a Madonna song starts to play on my radio, I immediately turn it off because it brings back memories. Unfortunately, Madonna songs are played on a regular basis at work. So I'm doing my darndest best to train my ears to accept this vocal trash as "white noise." Did she really look like Madonna, you ask ...? Well, she's a female just like Madonna, I can tell you that much!
I wonder what would have happened had I paid her mom to like me--things would have turned out quite differently. I do recall knocking on her bedroom door ( innocently enough ), to inquire about her daughter's whereabouts, one night when she was "busy." Boy! talk about coitus interruptus!!!
