Episode 446: Watched So Many Films...

This time, I spent almost the entire flight watching films. Started with La Habitación De Fermat (Fermat's Room), a Spanish thriller in which a group of mathematicians must stop a room from crushing them alive by solving a series of logico-mathematical enigmas. The premise is clever, and sounds like it would be right at home in a collection of Borges's stories, but as a film, its plot suffers because the hidden connections between the characters are revealed too glibly, and it becomes hard to suspend your disbelief by the end. Watched The Time Traveler's Wife next, as I really loved the novel and regretted not seeing the film adaptation when it was on earlier this year. I'll admit to nearly shedding a tear at the doomed love story, and I'm glad that they didn't change the ending into some Hollywood cliché where everyone lives happily ever after, although I think they should have stuck to a final meeting when Clare's in her old age, rather than just a couple of years after Henry's death. Did find myself pondering the logical inconsistencies of time travel in the film, but if you scrutinise it too closely, it just falls apart and you can't enjoy it anymore. Kind of like The Lake House, in that regard.

Decided to mix things up a little, and saw Accident, a Cantonese film that competed at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. I generally avoid watching Hong Kong films because they tend to blur into an indistinct mess, much like the music. I'm glad I decided to watch this one though, as the paranoia of Louis Koo's character pushes the film off the beaten track, taking it almost into arthouse territory. I kind of dozed off in the last half an hour, so had to rewind for the denouement, which in contrast to the Spanish film, I felt was handled well. It has that same sense of arbitrariness, but this chimes well with the nature of the plot, which is essentially driven by a single genuine accident, as opposed to the choreographed ones that Koo's character is so good at planning out. So by the end, you end up feeling sorry for him, blinded by his paranoia. I then made the mistake of watching Disney's G-Force. An adequate film, but the amount of stuff that actually happens in it? Wafer-thin. This is one Disney flick that calls for even less thought than usual!

Since my brain had completely switched off by this point due to lack of sleep, the last film I picked was G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra. Only realised at the end that Sienna Miller was in it. I did think her character looked oddly familiar. Great action movie, although that's not really my preferred genre. I can see it becoming the next successful film franchise, and wouldn't mind watching if it did, I guess. Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller are rather easy on the eye. Despite all this watching of films, I did actually finish reading Snark by the end of the flight. I sort of see the point Denby is making about media culture, but I was greatly relieved that he thinks high snark is still permissible in certain situations. At least there's something I can still aspire to, rather than having to be witty all the time. Haha! Have finished unpacking everything, which basically necessitated yet another reorganisation of my bookshelves. I'll definitely need to buy another set by the end of my university education, except there isn't exactly space for it in my room! My goal for the next week or so that I'm back is to try and read at least one novel a day. It's not like people are besieging me with requests to hang out...