bad movie rant

wow. the movie "birth" starring nicole kidman is colossally bad. honestly, i think this movie has no redeeming value. the narrative has no overall point, and it progresses through several bafflingly idiotic twists and turns. it is almost impossible to believe that this woman (kidman) carries so much grief from the loss of her husband--ten years earlier--that she actually believes a 10 year old boy who claims to be her dead husband, reincarnated. as the plot clunks along, you're led to believe the kid, then disbelieve him, then believe him again, etc. and throughout, the characters do things that are just ridiculous. in one scene toward the end of the film, kidman's character and her age-appropriate fiancee are auditioning a string trio to play their wedding music. for some inexplicable reason, the kid is there, along with all of the couple's family members, and everyone is seated as though watching a concert. the kid starts kicking the fiancee's chair, and the fiancee gets so incensed that he attacks the kid, ultimately dragging him to another room, putting him over his knee, and spanking the living shit out of him. the assembled family members are shocked and dismayed, but nobody says anything. in two other scenes, adult men witness nicole kidman's character doing extremely inappropriate things with this boy--in one scene they are naked in a bathtub together (this is witnessed by the fiancee, who closes the door as quietly as he can), and in another, immediately following the spanking scene, she gives him a lingering kiss out on the street. again, the adult man who witnesses the kiss turns away and ignores it.

on top of all of this, we're supposed to believe that this boy's parents willingly allow their 10-year old kid to sleep over at nicole kidman's character's house (which she shares with her fiancee and her family, one of the creepiest and most confusing movie families i've ever seen). even the music was bad--inappropriately and oddly upbeat.

gah! such a bad movie! i can't think of anything positive to say about it, except that nicole kidman looks kinda cute with short hair (it was a wig, and i'm *still* wondering how they got it to look so natural, when her real hair is quite long). and it's good to see that lauren bacall still seems to have all of her marbles.

ok, back to my housecleaning...

(no subject)

wow.

20 years melts away like nothing.

doing my housework, radio on in the background tuned to npr. they're playing a prairie home companion, which i usually turn off because i can't fucking stand garrison keillor, but i'm too busy to bother with it.

suddenly their special guest, renee fleming, comes on and sings the ave maria. and i freeze. 20 years ago almost to the day--it will be 20 years on monday--was my sister's funeral mass. my mom's friend lorraine hardebeck (also an operatically trained soprano) sang the ave maria that day, and it remains one of the most memorable moments, for me (it was also the first time i ever heard that piece sung well). lorraine was no renee fleming, of course, but she was a professional musician (as was my mom--they went to high school together, for crying out loud), and her unamplified voice filled the place and made a bunch of people cry. so of course renee's rendition makes me cry today. makes me think about my sister and how much life she missed (she was only 29), but also my mom and dad, how completely demolished they were by my sister's death, and what they're going through now, facing the end of their own lives.

christ. from nowhere. one minute i'm struggling to organize a stack of books, minding my own business and thinking about everything *but* my sister, and the next i'm on the floor bawling as though her funeral were the day after tomorrow.

weird to think that she'd be pushing 50 now, if she had lived. and i'm sure she'd have no sympathy for me, pushing 39...