This is going to be a short post since we are on Easter break right now. I tried watching the second part of Great Expectations last night but I was so tired that I kept drifting in and out of sleep until I woke up and didn’t know what the heck was going on. I gave up and went to bed instead. This morning I was able to finish watching and my emotions are mixed.
The storyline itself is rather dark and depressing and I just never really clicked with the actor playing Pip. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the movie; rather, it just was not one of my favorite stories. I was pleased with the bits of redemption that came at the end – Pip reconciling with both Joe and Magwitch. Estella finding love.
My favorite character was Herbert Pocket (the little red headed brat in part 1) who changed his ways and became Pip’s most loyal friend. It is interesting to note that the actor Harry Lloyd who played Herbert is actually a descendant of Charles Dickens. Fun fact. š
Well, we have plenty to watch next week with Julian Fellowes’s Titanic on April 14 and 15.
Plus Masterpiece’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood on April 15th. My DVR will be working overtime!
Have a great day, hopefully, enjoying some gorgeous spring weather! š
Category Archives: movies
TV Talk: Great Expectations, Part 2
TV Talk Monday: A Date with Dickens – Great Expectations – Part 1
I checked my DVR settings last night and noticed that I had a lot more recordings on there than I realized. Between the family recording favorite shows and movies, we were at 96% capacity. So I need to go and watch or erase some stuff! I almost never watch a show “live” so when I finally was able to sit down last night I was hoping to watch Once Upon A Time and Great Expectations but I never got to OUAT. I’ll come back and comment on OUAT’s episode later this week. (UPDATE: I posted about OUAT and Grimm here.)
It’s been many, many years since I’ve read Great Expectations and a long time since I’ve seen the 1999 version, which stared Ioan Gruffudd (currently on another fave show Ringer) as Pip, Justine Waddell (who I loved in Wives and Daughters) as Estelle and Charlotte Rampling as Miss Havisham. I was a little surprised, but excited, when I first heard that Gillian Anderson would play Miss H since I always pictured the character much older. However, I thought Gillian’s version made the character much more believable. Her mental illness and neurosis seemed plausible. Whereas before, the character seemed over the top.
The Setting – Masterpiece did a wonderful job conveying the somberness and a taste of despair in the setting and tone of the movie. I told Brian that after watching it I had the need to go take a fresh shower and open the windows or let some light in the room. The muck and grayness weighs on your spirit after awhile, but that only added to the story.
Pip and Estelle – Was Pip supposed to be that handsome in the book? I can’t remember. The actor had such a runway model/pretty boy look to him it was almost distracting. Either way, you can’t help feeling sorry for Pip and wanting to spare him the pain to come.
Joe and the Mrs. – Joe seems like such a loving character but how was it that he got married to his wife in the first place? Was she hiding her viciousness during their courtship or was he so passive that he let her call all the shots? Whatever the reasons, Joe’s bit of happiness seems to have left with Pip.
Orlick – The actor that played Orlick did an excellent job and thoroughly creeping me out. Kudos!
Jaggers – After seeing him I have to go watch a movie with Hercule Poirot. In fact, I think I already have one recorded on my ridiculously full DVR. Sigh.
That’s it for now but for more discussions about Great Expectations and OUAT go over to Dawn’s charming blog By Sun and Candlelight for Masterpiece Monday.
Have a great day!
7 Quick Takes (3/30/12) – A Contest, The Hunger Games Movie & The Flu Edition
Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.
– 1 –
TTIF Already? – How can it possibly be Friday already? The days we were absent from school has thrown me off so in my mind it feels like it’s only Wednesday. On the one hand, that’s great news since it is the weekend already. On the other hand, I’m two days short with the things I had to get done this week. Oh, well. That means I better quickly get this done and get back to work.
– 2 –
BaSP Blog Contest – First things first, I have to tell you that you must go over to my sister’s blog Barefoot and Sometimes Pregnant and enter her Year 3 Blog Birthday contest. She is simply fabulous! Whereas I share with you my struggles to keep a clean house or get more crafty or not kill my garden within the first few weeks, EL is a Martha Stewart-like chica. She is the sister most likely to be in labor with her fourth child and in between contractions she’ll manage to bake a loaf of bread, can a jar of preserves, gather vegetable in her garden for a homemade stew, milk the cow, sew a new outfit for the baby and whittle a baby crib. I kid you not. She amazes me. Anyway… she says:
Since barefoot and sometime pregnant is all about homemaking, I am giving away the perfect gift for any homemaker or future homemaker. Enter to win a copy of Style, Sex and Substance by Hallie Lord (if you already have a copy, you can give this one away to a friend), an All-in-one Organizer from the company thirty-one, and a custom apron. Yes, I will sew you an apron of your choice! (I will give you some pattern types to choice from and fabric options.) The giveaway will close on Sunday and I will post the winner on Monday.
Click on over and tell her that I sent you! š
– 3 –
Call Me Aunt B. – Oh, and also keep my sister in your prayers because she is now 39 weeks pregnant and any day she could have baby #4 (although she tends to go late.) We are all excited to meet our new family member! I can’t wait to see if I’m an auntie to a little niece or nephew.
– 4 –
RoL – Speaking of Blog Birthdays, this year our original website Revolution of Love.com will be ten years old in November! Can you believe it?! We started it when we were newly married and only had Bella. I had a lot more time to write back then! Since I was still new to mommyhood I wrote more for newly married couples and Catholic singles. There are a few articles about dating/courtship and chastity that still get a lot of hits. That’s why we haven’t pulled the site off the web. Over the next few months I’ll be reposting some of those articles here since the blog gets a lot for traffic that the website does.
– 5 –
Man, I’m Old – As for this blog, next month I’ll have been blogging for nine years! My first post was back in 2003. That’s just crazy. Although I’ve been around awhile, some years I only posted a handful of times. In 2003 I have only 22 posts. (Although, I did delete a few that had dead links or outdated info.) I think 2011 is the first year that I posted consistently with over 100 posts. Okay, okay. Useless facts. I’ll celebrate next month and, inspired by my sis, I’ll put together a little contest too. š
– 6 –
The Hunger Games vs The Flu – My mom called while I was typing and she asked me how the movie was last week. I forgot I was going to mention that. (Thanks for the reminder, mom.) As I mentioned last week, I had just finished reading The Hunger Games and planned to go see the movie on Saturday. That is a story in itself. Friday night my stomach was a little queasy but I didn’t think much of it. Matthew woke up at 6:30 AM but I was really feeling awful. Brian took the baby, I got sick and then went back to bed and slept until 10 AM. I woke up feeling a bit out of it but not too bad. I figured I must have gotten food poisoning. Brian said if I was up to it I could go ahead and go to the movies since I already bought my ticket and who knows when I’d get another afternoon off. True. I got ready and went. The movie was packed but luckily I found a secluded seat where I wouldn’t be touching anyone, in case I really was sick.
The movie started and from the get go it was amazing. I thought they did a great job making the book come alive on the screen, editing what they needed to but still keeping the tone of the book. I certainly think you’d get more out of the movie if you read it first because there are a lot of subtle things that you won’t pick up on unless you’ve read the book first. And although it was not gory-graphic it was still incredibly disturbing to see little kids get murdered like that. More disturbing was the fact that it was also viewed as reality tv/entertainment. With the current obsession with reality TV and the growing lack of disrespect for life, it does not seem too far fetched to think that we could one day return to the days of the martyrs in the Roman Coliseum.
As the movie continued we got to the part where Katniss was looking for the hurt Peeta and we lost our picture. We could hear it but not see it. We sat there as they tried to fix it. The manager came in and told us they were working on it but they couldn’t rewind what we missed because it would throw off the show times for the people behind us. The theater nearly had a District 11 riot (that was one of the last scenes we just saw) when he told us that. Finally they got the movie back on and they rewound it to the part where Rue and Katniss were together. We yelled, “NO!!!” We were not going to sit there and watch Rue’s death all over again. It was hard enough the first time when we could hear people in the theater quietly sobbing. Fifteen minutes later, they found the right spot and continued the movie. The end seemed a little rushed but I still loved the movie. Did you see it? What did you think?
After we were leaving the theater, the manager gave us all free passes so at least I got a free movie out of it! Plus, I got over my phobia of going to the movies alone, so I am ready to go! On a side note, however, I got home and by the end of the day I was much worse. I realized I had the flu and not food poisoning. As I lay on my bed dead to the world I kept praying I didn’t get anyone sick in the theater…from touching the seat or the handrail or the door handle. I kept picturing the movie Contagion. Sorry, my fellow movie goers!
– 7 –
Tiny Bubbles – That’s it for now. I better get back to my boys. While I type I’ll often put the bubble machine on the bookshelf and they play happily trying to pop bubbles or catch them on their tongue. (Ew.) Here is a photo of them right now still in their pj’s. Although Matthew looks like he’s ignoring the bubbles and looking for a good book. Maybe he’ll have a little more Brian than Bobbi in him. š
Have a wonderful weekend!!
TV Talk Monday: A Date with Dickens – Bleak House, Parts 7-8 (Episodes 12-15)
Previous posts: Introduction , Parts 1-2 , Parts 3-4 and Parts 5-6.
This post is later than usual since half of us had the flu this weekend, myself included. Thankfully I am better today, which is good because I am woefully behind on housework. Since today is laundry day I had tons of washing and folding to do and I was able to catch up on the laundry and my Dickens. What an ending to a fabulous mini-series! It was painful to watch the heartache of some scenes but splendid to relish in the joy of others.
A Four Hankie Episode – There were four times when tears were actually falling from my eyes. First was when Sergeant George was crying in the arms of his reunited mom. (Love that George! And his best bud Phil!) Second was when Esther was crying as she held her dead mother. (Give the poor girl a break, dear Lord.) Third was when Richard was apologizing to Ada just before his last breath left him. Fourth was when Mr. Jarndyce released Esther from her engagement so she could marry her true love. Although, those tears became happy tears as we saw Esther and Mr. Woodcourt finally share that kiss we knew they had been dying to have. (Swoon!)
Mystery Solved – I’ll admit Mr. Bucket grew on me over the last episodes. From his cheekiness to his tenacity to his occasional disguised tenderness. In the end he did get his man, or woman, in this case.
A Fave Scene – I love when Esther tells off Mr. Skimpole, like a lady, and he leaves town (at least temporarily.)
Hard Lesson to Learn – I find it timeless that Ada married Richard with the hope that once they were married his obsession with the Jarndyce and Jarndyce would come to an end, or at least be tempered, but instead it got worse. How many girls still do the same today? Marry a man with serious issues hoping that they’ll change once they are married. More often than not, it does not change and often it gets worse. Not that I blame Ada for marrying Richard in her situation. It’s just sad that he came to his senses too late. On the other hand, at least he was able to make peace before he died.
An Act of Honor or Selfishness? – I am torn in my feelings for Lady Dedlock. I suppose she thought she was doing the honorable thing by leaving Sir Leicester and sparing him the pain of seeing her but I can’t help thinking that she was chickening out. She should have humbled herself and pleaded with Sir Leicester to forgive her or at least faced her punishment and given him the opportunity to have it out with her. Had she stayed and faced the music, so to speak, she’d still be alive and she wouldn’t have caused him a stroke, literally. But that may simply be hindsight talking.
The “You’ve Got A Lot of Nerve” Award – Goes to Mr. Guppy, the Ladies Man, who proposed to Esther again after nearing becoming physically sick at the mere sight of her not too long ago. Yeah. Buh-Bye.
“Best Line of the Night” Award – Goes to Sir Leicester, “Poor Tulkinghorn. What an end. To be shot in the heart by a domestic servant.” A domestic servant? The horror.
Well, that was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed the mini-series too. I’m looking forward to next week when Masterpiece begins again. (My DVR is going to be working overtime that night – Great Expectations, Once Upon a Time, Amazing Race and the return of The Killing.) I’ll have a week’s worth of after hours TV recorded in one night. LOL. Have a great day!
7 Quick Takes (3/29/12) – Motherhood, Fundraising, & The Hunger Games
Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.
– 1 –
I am sorry to say that I am only half awake this morning. I was up at 3:30 AM with Matthew, who was either teething or feeling sick. Whatever it was, he was not happy and not sleeping. I can’t say that I felt much different at the time. After two hours I was finally able to get him back to sleep so I could catch another 30 minutes before I had to get up with the rest of the kids. It’s times like these I think I should start drinking coffee.
– 2 –
The other day I met an acquaintance I haven’t seen in awhile. She remembered me when I was pregnant with Andrew. When I told her I had four kids now she actually gasped. She stared at me for a minute and said I don’t look like I have four kids, which got me to thinking… What is a mom with four kids supposed to look like?? I don’t know but if she saw me right now she’d be saying, “You look like this and you only have four kids?” Grr. (Okay, let’s think of something more upbeat…)
– 3 –
I am in the last month of our school fundraising and Brian and I were actually able to solicit some nice gifts to be auctioned off. It is surprising that I am on the committee because I am terrible at sales. I like helping people but when it comes to talking them into buying something (or giving me something for free) I can’t bring myself to push it. There is another mom on the committee that has the ability to walk into a business cold turkey and she walks out with a complimentary deluxe package worth $500. I walk into a business and say, “You don’t want to donate something, right? No, I didn’t think so. Okay, thanks anyway.” Every once in awhile I do get a positive response to which I say, “Oh, you do? Are you sure? I’ll understand if you don’t. I know money is tight so don’t worry if you can’t…” Yeah, I’m not a salesman. The other mom said I had a pleasant demeanor so they would donate. “Pleasant”? I don’t know. That sounds an awful lot like the blind date with the “great personality.” Oh, well. I’ll take what I can get.
– 4 –
At least the soliciting of donations has put my “mommy cards” to good use. What’s a mommy card? It’s like a business card but geared towards my business – mommyhood. It’s great for when I need to give people my contact info quickly. Above is the one I use, although my personal info like my last name and phone numbers are edited out. They have a lot of cute ones at Vista Print.com. They have an offer for 250 free cards but the selection is limited. You can also choose the $10 special (with the $5 off savings) and have a large selection. Just search “mommy card.”
– 5 –
Last Friday I was going to tell you about a book I read – Stealing Jenny by Ellen Gable – but I was so preoccupied with the my vomit shower and Matthew’s near death experience (how’s that for an upbeat topic?) that I never got to it. Here’s the summary, “After three heartbreaking miscarriages, Tom and Jenny Callahan are happily anticipating the birth of their sixth child. Their neighbor, however, is secretly hatching a sinister plot which will find Jenny and her unborn baby fighting for their lives.” The story is well written and although the kidnapping is a harrowing tale, the book is also touching as it explores the topics of love, courage, forgiveness and trust in God, both in the main plotline and the flashbacks of Jenny and Tom’s beginning friendship. I may not recommend this book if you are a pregnant woman prone to worry (especially if like me, you recently saw a documentary about real life women who were in similar situations. Scary!) However, to the others, I wholeheartedly recommend the book. You can get it in paperback or download it to your kindle for only $2.99.
– 6 –
After the suspense of that story I was looking for something else that would keep my interest. A number of people I know have been taking about The Hunger Games and there has been so much hype about the movie that I downloaded a free sample chapter onto my kindle. Let’s just say that I read the first chapter and was drawn in immediately and downloaded the rest of the book. That whole day I was sneaking my iPhone out and trying to read pages in between whatever I was doing. Finally after everyone was in bed I read well into the night and breathlessly finished the last page. There is a great Book Review and Parents’ Guide of The Hunger Games Trilogy from a Catholic perspective over at Catholic Lane.com. It begins:
“The Hunger Games is a futuristic, sci-fi series that draws heavily on themes of violence, war and power. It is set in the dystopia created by the Capitol, the ruling class that satiates its own pleasures at the expense and oppression of the 12 Districts. The Districts, which are made up of the working class, provide the Capitol population with everything it needs to continue its own survival and remain in power.
The story commences with Panem, the country that emerged from the civil war ruins of what was once North America, preparing for the annual Hunger Games. The Games are televised live and are mandatory viewing for every citizen in the nation. They were instituted as a punishment for the Districts’ attempted rebellion against the Capitol years ago. Every year each of the 12 Districts must provide one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen who will fight to the death on live television until only one child is still alive. The Games exist to remind the people in the Districts that not even children are beyond the reach of the Capitol’s power…” (Continue reading.)
The guide reviews all three books so Spoiler Alert if you haven’t read them already. There is also a list of topics and discussion starters for those parents with older children who will want to read these books.
– 7 –
To show you how much I loved reading The Hunger Games, Brian suggested that he watch the kids and I take an afternoon off since I’ve been so busy with household stuff and the school fundraiser ect. I told him I’d like to see the Hunger Games movie this weekend. He was surprised since I’ve never gone to the movies alone but he was more that happy to give me some time off. So I’ve bought my ticket and have my handkerchief and a bag of peanut M&M’s in my purse. Tomorrow afternoon this mama will be ready for 2 1/2 hours of action and drama. After that I’ll be ready to come home and kiss my husband and kids and hold them close!
In the meantime, have a great weekend and may the odds ever be in your favor.