My collaborator, Albert, seems to think that I like too many things, and while I'll admit that I enjoy liking things and talking about things I like, I don't concede that this is a flaw on my part. I can be as picky and as grumpy as the next guy - I just don't feel like it adds the same kind of zest to my life that enjoying something does. That said, here' some happy thoughts about the movie Pieces of April, which I watched this weekend on DVD. I'd seen the little clip with Patricia Clarkson on the Oscars, and Albert told me that he'd read and enjoyed the screenplay. We picked the movie out as the opening selection for a Friday night family film fest, and I'll admit I felt a little dubious during the first twenty minutes - not about the quality of the film, which was immediately apparent, but about my willingness to go on this particular emotional journey while consuming beer and cheesesteaks at the end of an exhausting week. But I hung in, drawn in by the skillful writing, directing and acting on the screen. I was particularly impressed by the surprises in the screenplay - on more than one occasion, you think you know where the story is going, and then it doesn't go there. And the way the climax is handled - just when things are about to get really emotional, the film switches to a montage of still photographs to depict events that otherwise might have seemed mawkish - left me deeply moved and gratified. Here's a couple images from the film:






Work of warning about the official site which I linked to above: it's Flash-based and takes forever to load. What's up with that? There, see, I knew I could find SOMETHING to complain about.