I saw a couple of movies last weekend. First was the film that all the Docker, baseball capped wearing ‘guys’ must have loved, The Wedding Crashers with Owen and Vince. I didn’t like this movie-at all. It was the 40 Year Old Virgin for stupid people, and I loved The 40 Year Old Virgin, another top flick among the Bud rinking, fraternity, Teva wearing crowd. The Virgin had Steve Carell, and a clever cast, and sly, humor with the right mix of vulgarity. This Wedding thing just bashed you over the head with really ‘lets get drunk and write this crazy shit that’s totally , like ’so wrong’ under the guise of trying to be politically incorrect’ when in reality it was just boring, bordering on offensive, with a dumbed down version of Sophia Petrillo in the form of a foul mouthed Grandma, and a gorgeous slutty nympho after chubby loser Vince Vaughn. Owen Wilson is the luckiest guy in the world. He gets paid to sleepwalk his way through films. *1 Handbag

The other film was a rental. Brigitte Ditmars, of Hell in a Handbag’s Caged Dames had mentioned it to me a long time ago and we finally picked it up. The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio with Julianne Moore. It was based on the true story of housewife Evelyn Ryan from bestseller written by her daughter Terry ‘Tuffy’ Ryan. What a delight! Although Evelyn was married to a chronic alcoholic (Woody Harrelson in some of his best work), who squandered the family’s meager resources on booze to the point of no food and eviction for the family, Evelyn managed to always (well almost always) look on the bright side of things and she sustained them through entering contests back in the day when contests required skills. She wrote jingles for various products and she won big more then once which literally saved her family from living on the streets. You’d think this would be a total downer but the film really captures the indomitable spirit of this woman and her children adored her and it seems like they turned out okay, despite the very realistic depictions of Dad’s alcoholic fits of rage and depression. Moore and Harrelson have some very good moments together. I don’t think this was ever released in the theaters or if it was it was a small blip on the radar. It’s an odd little film but very worthwhile. ***3 Handbags

Filed under: My Way Of Life