Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much anxious fish, because I must leave here early for my eye doctor appointment, for which I have not only anxiety but high anxiety. Do send excellent vibes and xylophones that the eye issue is what we think it is and that I can get it fixed sooner than later. But enough about today, let’s talk about yesterday. But before I talk about yesterday, may I just say that this is the final day of October and also Halloween? And tomorrow is a new month, namely November, and it is my fervent hope and prayer that November will be a month filled with health, wealth, happiness, creativity, and all things bright and beautiful. Anyway, yesterday I got seven hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, did some stuff on the computer, but didn’t really want to do anything beyond that. I did manage to finish the movie I’d begun the night before, something called The Book of Henry. Now, let me just start off by saying that it is NOT recommended highly or lowly by the likes of me. It is one of the wackiest, stupidest, weirdest movies I’ve ever seen, with shifts of tone that are beyond repair, terrible dialogue, weird characters. So, SPOILER ALERT – if you don’t want to know everything just skip to the next paragraph. So, we begin with a heartwarming Spielbergian opening with a single mom (Naomi Watts – always good), her eleven-year-old genius son who manages their finances and basically runs the show, and his little brother that he watches over. Yes, we’re in that world. We see them at school, after school, then we see mom have a terse conversation with her neighbor about never managing her leaves – riveting, I tell you. Then we see his eleven-year-old daughter, who looks sullen but seems to like the mom and two boys. More cutesy scenes occur before we realize that it isn’t the neighbor’s daughter, it’s his stepdaughter and he is sexually abusing her nightly. No wonder she’s sullen. Genius catches on and wants to help her and contacts the local Child Protection Services, which unfortunately just happens to be run by the stepfather’s brother. Oh, and the abusing stepfather also happens to be the chief of police. So, we’re now in a whole other movie. How will genius be able to help her with the deck so stacked? Well, he takes lots of notes in a book (The Book of Henry), and does a lot of planning things, but we’re not going to see it come to fruition because he has a seizure, is taken to the hospital, has brain surgery, they can’t get all the tumor he has, and a few days later – he dies. Yes, our title character bites the dust with half the movie left to go. Mom is inconsolable, brother is taking it poorly, and girl next door is getting abused nightly. Then mom finds The Book of Henry and Henry has left detailed step-by-step instructions on his tape recorder for mom to kill the stepfather with a high-powered rifle. So, now we’re in a whole OTHER movie because mom realizes he genius was right all along and the girl is being abused. Then mom gets the gun, lures stepdad to the proper place, is about to shoot him dead when she accidentally moves the tripod mount the gun is on, which releases one of genius’s little inventions that ends with photos opening of him, mom, and brother. She realizes she can’t go through with it, but instead confronts stepdad telling him she will not stop until he’s put away. Between her and the school, it’s reported again. But the stepfather’s brother can no longer help, the police come, and stepfather blows his brains out. Happy ending. Mom adopts the girl, we get a few twee lines of Henry’s narration, the end. I mean, it is truly a misbegotten, poorly directed mishmash for an interminable hour and forty-five minutes. The end.
Well, that was long. I hope I’m giving the movie the justice it deserves. For food, I had a sandwich and potato salad at one. At seven, I had two biscuits with country gravy – out of this world – and a slice of cherry pie, all very good. And here we are.
Today, I’ll be up at seven-thirty – I’ll be shaving and showering before bed, so I’ll just have to get dressed, brush the teeth, and be on my way, giving myself over an hour, just in case. I think I’m going to try the canyon that’s rarely crowded and hope for the best. I’ve already scoped out the building on Google, so I know exactly where it is. Then I have my eye doctor appointment – have no idea how long that will take. Depending on how my dilated eyeballs are doing, there is a little café nearby and I could certainly have a bit to eat there before heading home, but I’d like to be back in the Valley no later than one. Then I’ll go to the mail place and hopefully pick up two important envelopes, then I’ll come home and perhaps do a bit of writing and then watch, listen, and relax.
Tomorrow, if the important envelopes are in hand, I’ll do my banking stuff, Saturday I can relax and start to assemble the commentary for the holiday show, Sunday, I’m seeing a matinee – don’t know anything about the play but the set designer was recommended to me, so I want to see what his set looks like. I have two other candidates beyond him. then next week is very busy.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by seven-thirty and out the door soon thereafter, have an eye doctor appointment, come back to the Valley, hopefully pick up two important envelopes, eat, and then I’ll turn off the lights outside so we don’t get any trick or treaters, even though we usually don’t anyway, and then I’ll watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are you doing for Halloween? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, hoping my high anxiety goes away soon.