The movie was The Ghost Writer, directed by Roman Polanski. One of Ray's Netflix choices, I knew nothing about it beforehand. Turned out to be very good. I forget what an artist Polanski is—never mind his tawdry soap opera life. The story was good, the acting was good and the look of the movie was intriguing and beautiful. Much of it took place in a starkly modern house on Martha's Vineyard with gray and rainy weather outside, not so different from our own weather today. I couldn't help but notice the color, obviously carefully orchestrated. The palette was neutral, including the clothing and accentuated with a deep orange-y red that showed up repeatedly throughout the movie, including a scene of cars on a road—all shades of brown, black, gray, white and one single deep red pickup truck. Here are a couple of photos from the movie site that will give you an idea of the look:
The story was about a writer, who is hired to ghost write the autobiography of a former British Prime Minister, after the original ghost writer drowns mysteriously. The plot is complex, but moves right along to an unexpected conclusion. The style and pacing are reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock movies and the final scene is quite brilliant, in my opinion.
Earlier today we went out to a movie. We met our daughter and her family at the Kennedy School to see Toy Story III. It was 3-year-old Sofia's first movie theater movie and her excitement and reactions were as fun for me as the movie itself. She sat right at the edge of her seat, fully engaged through the entire movie and seemed to love every second. We all loved it. That Pixar animation is so fun to watch and the writing was very clever and funny at both child and adult levels.
The Kennedy School is one of the McMenamin's establishments here in Portland. I wrote about it about a year ago. An old elementary school, reborn as a hotel, restaurant, bars, art gallery and movie theater. The theater has comfy chairs and you can order beer and pizza to eat while you watch the movie. They have special family movie times, as the movie today was. The movies are the ones no longer at the first-run theaters, but not yet out on DVD. I think our tickets cost $3 per person today.
So, rain or no, it has been a good day. Two good movies. Thumbs up all around.
jealous...I had hoped to get a chapter or two into the new Grant Wood biography...but nope. Love the Kennedy School, that was almost an every Sunday event for us when we lived on the east side of town.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a perfect movie day! I've read the book The Ghost Writer and liked it very much -- I didn't know it had been made into a movie! Wasn't Toy Story III lovely? I'm glad you got to share Sofia's first movie experience!
ReplyDeleteI saw the Ghost Writer and liked the movie but I really did not like the house. It disturbed me. It wasn't a home, it was cold and stark. Someplace I definitely wouldn't want to live.
ReplyDeleteGhostwriter was one of our Netflix movies too. I was entranced by the colors as well. The house was amazing -- though could only live there in an alternate reality where it's always summer (to balance the coldness of the house) and I have no kids.
ReplyDeleteI had a free movie coming from Directv and Ghost Writer was the only one that looked at all interesting & I like the star. Wow, yes, very Hitchcockian and I didn't quite see the ending coming. But it was brilliant. Made me wish there were more movies out there made like this.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what my first movie was. I wonder if Sofia will remember her experience today? We just added "The Ghost Writer" to our Netflix queue.
ReplyDeleteThe Ghost Writer was my favorite movie this year, so visually stunning,so mysterious,great music, very Hitchcockian. I watched it three times, a rare thing these days. That one big window in the study which was like an ever-changing painting, Wow. Roman Polanski is an amazing artist. On the DVD is an interview with the author and his experience working with Polanski.
ReplyDeleteI watched this movie in my friend's house and I found it pretty great. I like its musical scoring and sound effects, as it thrilled me so! But what I like most about this movie is that, it's a scary movie with very few violent scenes in it. =)
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