Howards End

At the beginning of January I made a decision to take more of the vacation days I keep earning and losing because I don't take them. My idea of the vacation would be a day to relax at home, maybe clean some, maybe watch TV, maybe read. Yesterday I took one of those days and spent most of it helping the 10-year-old of the house paint a picture of a cat at the bottom of some steps and next to a flower garden. Then I watched Howards End and shoveled the driveway. Then it was, all the sudden, the end of the day. I read some of "Dead Until Dark" and made some lasagna. It turned out pretty well. I've only made lasagna a handful of times in my life. It takes a really long time to cook. It's not something you want to make in the summer, because it will make the house very hot.
Howards End is a movie from the early 1990s, but it's not evident because it takes place in another time -- I suppose in about 1900. It's one of those movies that probably a lot of people already saw, since everyone has had almost 20 years to watch it. Emma Thompson plays the main character. Helena Bonham Carter has a minor role. Anthony Hopkins takes up a larger role as the movie goes along. All the acting is very good. It's not usually my kind of movie, and I did almost fall asleep while watching it, but after awhile I found myself being surprised that I started to care about the characters and wondering what they were going to say next and what would happen. A lot happens, and a lot about human nature -- funny, tragic, interesting, and beautiful -- happens.

P.S. I Watched Another Movie Too

We watched "P.S. I Love You," only because my sister has insisted to me in the last several conversations I've had with her that it's a really really good movie and well worth watching and she bought it and has watched it again and again and it just keeps getting better and I really need to get it. So I rented it. It's about a husband and wife, but the husband dies. The husband knows he's going to die, so he arranges for the wife (played by Hillary Swank) to receive messages from him after he dies, so that he can help her get over him. I tried doing that once with an ex-boyfriend, and it didn't work so well (as long as I'm still alive, there's still a chance, you know?) I think the movie works well because the characters that the actors play are so likable. It's supposed to be a comedy, and the way the movie is written and produced isn't done to make the viewer feel sentimental or sad about the deceased husband. The way he sends letters, and the flashbacks the movie contains, make the viewer (and, maybe, the wife), feel like he's still around. It doesn't feel like reality, and it is more than predictable, and it just seems like a cute little story to keep us entertained for a little while. I probably won't be watching it twice, or buying it anytime soon. I almost forgot today what it was that I watched (hence the postscript about the postscript). What was interesting to me is that he was Irish, and I know someone who prides himself upon being Irish, and I could see the similarities. Then the wife goes and meets someone in Ireland who reminds her of her husband, and that guy reminded me of the guy I know who's Irish. I wonder about how hard people tried in the movie and in real life to fit a stereotype of an Irish man, or if it just happens that way. In any event, it works.

Up next: The Tick! Seasons one, discs one and two. Yes!