The Laziest Post

Here's an e-mail exchange we had about movies we've seen lately.  Sorry.  It's not even that insightful or funny.  Oh well. 

PETE: Sunday, I saw The Departed, which I liked.  I had some problems with it and I thought it was about a half-hour to an hour too damned long, but I mostly liked it.  Leo is really good and kind of hot.  Which is surprising, because I kind of thought he lost his looks at some point -- too moon-faced and funny body.  Maybe it's the role. 

JENNY: Yeah, I liked The Departed, and agreed with your assessment. I'm sort of confused at Mark Wahlberg's Oscar nomination, but okay. Last night we On Demanded The Break Up, which is not! good!  Why did I think it was supposed to be sort of funny? Oy. A slog. A messy slog. All over the place.  I saw The Queen on the plane and was underwhelmed.

PETE: The Break Up?  Huh.  Anyway, I didn't get the Marky Mark nomination,   either.  He's fine, but basically, it's a flashy role -- it's not him, it's the writing.  I thought Leo had to sell some of the harder stuff -- um, especially the implausible relationship with Vera Farmiga -- and also had to do more interesting dialect work.  I'm surprised people nominated him for Blood Diamond instead, because who saw that?  The more I think about it, the more I kind of hated The Queen.  Was it a really shitty year for movies?  Because it's kind of a laughable bunch of   nominees.  I get that generally with the Oscars, something other than quality is being judged and that the nominees almost never include the actual best films, but The Queen?  Little Miss Sunshine (My brother: "Well, it was a lot better than National Lampoon's Vacation.")?  Yeah, I liked The Departed fine, but I wouldn't put it even in the top tier of Scorsese films.  I didn't see Babel, but everyone says that was a real load, like worse than The Queen.

JENNY: Yeah. I didn't get what they were doing with Vera Farmiga. It felt like they totally changed the character at some point -- blue collar or white collar? southie or main line? And why would she date a patient anyway? Anyway. Is Babel this year's Crash?

PETE: Some of that had to be her fault -- her accent was all over the place.   I agree with you about dating a patient -- that's what I meant when I said that Leo really sold it.  I thought that the initial scenes with them were well-written and -acted (by him): you could understand why she would find him compelling and would want to continue to help him, and then of course you would want to have sex with him, because he's nice-looking and, unlike her boyfriend, doesn't wear high-waisted jeans or treat her like a dick.  Is it possible we're supposed to think that she's not very bright, too?  I kept thinking, "Oh, this is the worst therapist since Dr Melfi."