I Saw Henry Poole

Was Here. Or is it Henry Poole Is Here? I cannot recall.
Last night I fell asleep watching Looking for Kitty, a movie starring Ed Burns, who also directed the movie. I thought it looked like a Woody Allen movie. There was a scene in Looking for Kitty that took place in the exact spot where Alan Alda's character in Crimes and Misdemeanors sat on a bench and talked about "bending the truth, and not breaking it" in order for comedic material to be funny. I know that because that's where I stopped and later re-started watching Crimes and Misdemeanors about two weeks ago. I expected "Looking for Kitty" to be a story that was interesting because of Kitty's disappearance, where she ended up, and the private detective's possibly amusing and colorful journey he had tracking her down. Instead, it was a more realistic story about Kitty's husband's soul-searching and epiphany he had while with the private investigator. And there were some other distractions thrown in, so that it wasn't completely one dimensional, like effectively portraying various characters' feelings of loneliness. As it usually goes when I fall asleep watching a movie at home, I finish it the next morning out of hope that it ends well and the need for the satisfaction of knowing that I won't be curious about missing a stellar ending. I read later about Ed Burns's style being known for his replication of Woody Allen's style.
When I got to the theater last night, my friend said to the person who sells the tickets, "Henry Poole ........ is here?" to which the ticket seller replied, "Yes, it's here." He didn't smile so I don't think he was trying to be funny.
If I had watched Henry Poole at home, I might have fallen asleep as well, so it's probably good that I watched it at the theater. I went to the elderly theater, where the sound didn't work for the first 10 minutes and we just had to read lips while one of the only other couple behind us got up to complain. You'd think they would've started the movie over again so we could have caught the beginning, but they didn't. This was one of the few times I wasn't late for the movie. You can't be late for the movies at the elderly theater, because the film you came to see has one or fewer previews.
Henry Poole stars Luke Wilson as Henry Poole and Radha Mitchell as his neighbor. My friend watching the movie knows of Radha Mitchell through his hometown connections, so that always adds a little bit of interest to a movie. Maybe not for me, since I don't have those same connections ... one of the things I liked about the movie was the close-ups of the faces. Close-ups are good. You see a lot of things you wouldn't ordinarily see -- the lines around a person's eyes, the perfection of a child's face, the wide-open, innocent eyes of a little girl, and the details of the two-day shadow of Luke Wilson's beard. Good stuff. Besides the face close-ups, there was the theme of the movie, about learning to look at things in a positive and hopeful light. My friend kept making jokes about whether the movie was going to make a person believe in god, to which I replied, "which one?" not knowing how to respond, and finally persuading him that I didn't feel that the movie was supposed to make a person believe in god, but just to have faith in goodness and a positive attitude. I'm pretty sure Henry Poole didn't end up believing in god at the end of the movie, I think he just learned that he was ready to embrace life and make the best of it.
Recently, someone insisted to me that I had to try Jell-O cake. You make the cake and pour Jell-O in liquid form on it. Then you put it in the refrigerator for two hours. Then you put whipped cream on top. I decided to give it a try, even though I don't particularly like cakes made from cake mixes, or stawberry-flavored gelatin. Lime, however, is a different story. She said lime Jell-O wouldn't be good on cake. So, in two hours, I'll see if she is right. I don't like artificial strawberry flavor, either. I don't know why I wasted my time. I just want to experience things I haven't experienced before. Then I'll know. Such is my zest for life. Insisting on finishing movies and trying recipes I don't think will be good but am just curious about.