A little convoluted at the beginning, but when you get to the end you figure it out and the whole movie makes sense.

Basically four (or five/six?/can’t remember exactly) other people were shot (but not killed, according to the post script, although it seemed like one character was definitely pretty close to dead!) when Bobby Kennedy was shot / it was in a crowd. So the movie follows those characters throughout their entire day until the shooting. So at first, I GUESS I can see why people are confused because it doesn’t come clear why you are following those specific characters until they get shot at the end.

But why does it have to be clear? Whatever, I didn’t have a problem with that myself.

So what is the point of that set-up? The point is that each of those people had hopes and dreams about the future, and Bobby Kennedy represented at least one little part of their hopes & dreams. That so many people lost something that day / not just the OBVIOUS. That an event like that can turn your life upside down whether or not you’re political and whether or not you agreed with his stance. And that, overall, in the big scheme of things, it was a huge moment. Arguably huger than his brother’s shooting, because his brother’s shooting is part of the history. Because it was the SECOND time. Because it closely followed MLK’s shooting. Because these things don’t just happen to one person / they happen to all of us / and there is/was a cumulative effect flowing through those years.

Because sometimes what someone stands for is so much bigger than who they were.

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Written & directed by Joey Lauren Adams, “Amy” of “Chasing Amy”. Starring Ashley Judd, who was really wonderful here.

It’s a small film. A “coming into one’s own” film (rather than “coming of age”). A film about, really, just one moment / one turning point. Realizing that you have to make your own choices. That you can’t rely on old crutches, or blame other people and the past they’ve saddled you with for the decisions you’re making today.

A small, quiet movie. But moving. Well directed, well acted. Well worth the admission.

Well worth the drive to Highland Park, somewhere neither of us had ever been, to go to this last night as it was only playing at 4:10 in the city. Somehow we made it before the previews were even over despite getting lost in suburbia.

People are calling this the best Bond film in years. Yeah, because it’s not really what we have come to know as the Bond film, it just happens to have him as a character in it.

Ways in Which This Film Resembles a Bond Film

• His name is Bond, James Bond.
• Judi Dench is his boss.
• He works for MI6.
• Sleeps with more than one girl.

Ways in Which This Film Does NOT Resemble a Bond Film

• He’s blonde not dark, short not tall, and has actual muscles instead of the lanky Moore/Dalton/Brosnan shape. (Craig is bulked up like a male gymnast in this movie. Quite the contrast from his Munich and LayerCake silhouettes).
• He takes cabs!
• He fights with his hands a lot (limited gun usage)!
• He gets the crap beat out of him several times and is very bloody and battered and completely messed up.
• Subtle dialogue. No cheeseball stupid lines like “I thought Christmas only came once a year” but instead nice play-by-play (Her: “I’m the money” Him: “Worth every penny.” Moneypenny. Get it?)
• Only one scene with anything very “gadgety” (and it was medical.) Otherwise straight fists / guns / regular cars / nothing fancy.
• No Q.
• Falls in love, bares his soul.
• Drinks some crazy fruity drink he makes up with 1/2 teaspoon of a billion different things.

Ways in Which This Film May or May Not Resemble Bond, I Cannot Remember
A really sadistic sadomasochistic beating scene that I can only imagine made all the men in the audience cringe with sympathy pain.

It was pretty good. Not a GREAT FLICK by any means, but very enjoyable. Daniel Craig is pretty yummy, even bloody and battered. (As some of us like to say, “I’d tap that.”)

Revenge. Twisted competition. And in the end, through two different revelations, you are brought face to face with the almost unbelievable level of horror humans can stoop to when caught in the throes of such. Crazy ending to wrap your mind around.

Chilling.

(Christian Bale was really great, despite his weirdly all the exact same size, all the way across the top teeth.)

Loved it (man I’m easy sometimes).

Loved the costumes and the pageantry and the yummy yummy food. I was so hungry afterward, filled with longings for cakes and pies and tarts and eclairs and perhaps a jar of frosting to eat with my fingers.

Thought Kirsten Dunst was really good (I also like her in Wimbledon, although in general I really don’t like her and there are a number of movies she has totally skeeved me out in).

Overall, a tremendous feeling of sadness. Her life became so barren, so lonely and alone and full of distrust and gossip…

Really well done.

Really unusual idea, great acting, great writing. Some of the actors’ resemblances (as made up/acted here specifically) to the real people were just absolutely striking.

Really interesting how they handled the relationship between Blair and the Queen and the dynamics there. So much of this is supposition (unclear if they had ANY sources and who, or which (if any) parts were perhaps “true” or drawn from documented information), but rings true nonetheless

Two connected scenes where I wasn’t sure what you were supposed to think: which way the director was leaning toward. Doesn’t matter obviously, you can make up your own mind, but afterward BOTH of us asked “but were you supposed to think this? or this? did they want THIS to be the point? or not?” about the same scenes so clearly raised questions.

I did not know much about her later in life, or follow her in that way, but as a seventh grader, I did get up at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. or whenever (man I am old, I cannot remember!) to watch Diana marry her prince in real time. Curled up in a blanket alone in the TV room about an inch from the screen while the rest of the house slept…It’s one of the first worldwide psuedo political events I remember…

And the summer I lived in the UK with my British cousins, I actually saw her (believe she was still HRH then/still married). We were about a foot apart as her limo came through the roundabout in Cornwall where the police had stopped all of us other drivers. I looked through the windows separating us, waved (she waved back, but of course) and thought “hey…I just saw a princess!”

I want to live at Balmoral. With my books and my quiltin’ and my knittin’ and my prince. WHERE IS HE.

This movie sucked so hard I can’t believe I watched all of it. Lots of good actors (good in other things actors, I mean): Cuba Gooding, Anne Archer, Angie Harmon, James Woods. But bad plot, bad dialogue, bad, bad, bad, bad. Typical presidential assassination/insiders involved/espionage like storyline.

*SPOILER* In this movie, BOTH the president AND the first lady are having affairs. Come on.
So bad.

Wow. WOW. Sooooo good. Super intense. Super violent, yet lots of comic relief; funny moments that had the whole theater laughing even during the most violent scenes. Also hilarious was Markie Mark’s hair. His acting was great, his hair was hilarious.
In general: well-acted, well-written, well-directed.

My one caveat was ONE of the many twists at the end was just too “out of the blue”; the audience was completely in the dark and that felt a bit “unfair” or not a legitimate twist. But it was one tiny moment and was made up for by the next one.

I think Leo’s often a good actor but I’ve never been on the oh-he’s-so-cute bandwagon. That said, there are two scenes in this movie during which he was just so very, very attractive. During one of them (NOT the sex one), I found I was holding my breath…

So.SO.Good. GO!