where: CENTURY 14 VALLEJO in Vallejo, CA
when: Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
show: 7:45 p.m.
costs: $9.50 Ticket + $4.00 Hot Dog + $3.75 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke = $17.25
auditorium: 11
seat: 4th row, 8ht column
synopsis: Fun with Jake and Jane in a love rectangle.
After being divorced for 10 years, an ex-couple, Jake ( Alec Baldwin ) and Jane ( Meryl Streep ), get together to help celebrate their son's college graduation. After a few drinks, they find themselves having an affair with each other, what with Jake being married to ( a much younger ) Agness ( Lake Bell ) while at the same time Jane is considering a relationship with her architect, Adam ( Steve Martin ). Will things work out for all parties concerned or will it all end up being just one big mess? One thing's for certain: It is so complicated!
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Anniversary party; 2.) Empty house; 3.) Bakery; 4.) Architectural plans; 5.) Plastic surgeon; 6.) Elevator; 7.) Female get-together; 8.) Hotel bar; 9.) Hotel bed; 10.) "Gone native"; 11.) Toast; 12.) Audio-taped instruction guide for the newly divorced; 13.) It's official; 14.) Confession; 15.) The other woman; 16.) More caliente; 17.) Upstairs view; 18.) Little Pedro; 19.) Spying on ex-wife; 20.) Downward-facing dog "yoga"; 21.) Baby; 22.) Marijuana; 23.) 'Phone call; 24.) Psychologist; 25.) Fertility clinic; 26.) Hotel tryst; 27.) Flomax; 28.) Nervous Harley ( John Krasinski ); 29.) "Jakey"; 30.) Ovulating; 31.) No show; 32,) Dad's favorite meal; 33.) Harley's secret; 34.) Appointment book; 35.) High, Jane; 36.) Reefer; 37.) Guest bathroom; 38.) The dance; 39.) Bakery; 40.) "Jammie" pants; 41.) Breakfast; 42.) Web cam; 43.) Jane and her children; 44.) Relationship's not done; 45.) The swing; and 46.) The rain.
audience reaction: The audience enjoyed this Rom-Com.
recommendation: Go see this movie.
spoiler alert! At her age, shouldn't Jane be considering downsizing her domicile, instead? Jane didn't need a brow-lift. There is very little need for pain killers after a brow-lift surgery so long as you keep to your daily intake and topical application of antibiotic medications as prescribed by your surgeon, and getting plenty of rest. What she needed was blepharoplasty ( eyelid plastic surgery ). In later scenes, Jane's eyelids were no longer droopy.
fyi: I remember taking Wood Shop as a high school freshman. One of my classmates told me that his parents were divorced. I was already familiar with this word because of my intensive schooling in the English language back in the Philippines. But to hear someone, in person, actually use it as a statement of fact caught me off-guard. I never thought that I would ever come across someone whose parents were divorced.
After seven years of living here in the United States with my mother and my siblings, I found out one day that my mother had filed for divorce from my father, who was in the Philippines all that time. My long-time friend, Hector, told me that in this country a couple is considered divorced if they have been separated for at least seven years. It came as a shock! After all, there was no such thing as Divorce back in the old country. And only Americans get divorced, I thought. Granted, my father was a very abusive husband and father. But so were a good majority of the husbands and fathers in the land of my birth where "red", "grey" and "black" shades of Machismo were culturally dominant. And the law had no provisions for the mitigation or prevention of spousal abuse and child abuse. The wives and children just had to learn in a painfully difficult way to avoid incurring the husband's/father's wrath, and to lessen the severity of said wrath should it become unavoidable by not defending one's self. I was my father's "punching bag" but, then again, so were every one else in my family, including one or two of our maids. It was just a matter of time before all of our relatives, friends, neighbors, and classmates in the Philippines found out about the divorce; and I became ashamed of being a child of such a scandal. Then I swore never to become like my father, ever!
Many years ago, back in Oakland, CA, I had to see an E.E.N.T. ( Ears, Eyes, Nose and Throat ) specialist about an ear infection. As the doctor sat me down for the diagnosis, I couldn't help but notice that he was a dead-ringer for Steve Martin--I guess you could say that they were identical twins separated at birth! I had to contain myself to keep from laughing because of his face. But I never broached the "look-alike" subject to him because it would have been a redundant statement of the so-obvious. Wouldn't it have been funny, though, had it actually been Steve Martin, himself, doing a "Candid Camera" prank on me?
word of advice: Consider for a moment if an extra-marital affair is worth the trouble that you are about to get yourself into.
tidbits: This morning, before going to work, I checked the more popular web browsers to see if they can find my blog site easily. Google Chrome, Opera, Ask.com and Mozilla Firefox can find it easily. Internet Explorer and Safari have a hard time finding it. And Yahoo always digs-up a Brazilian blog site instead of mine!
A welcome news which I just happened upon is that BlogPulse.com has my current movie review, the one on SHERLOCK HOLMES, listed in it twice ( BlogPulse Analysis/Key Phrases, # 18 & # 25 on the BlogBites column, for December 26th, 2009 ). Maybe it does a weekly update on my entries. I'll have to check it out next week to see if I'm right about this. I offer a BIG Heart-Felt "Thank You!" to whoever submitted my blog for posting--keep it up! Thank You, Thank you and thank you.
