Miss Charming Melodee and I finally saw the movie Big Fish last night. We'd been meaning to see this for almost two months now. I'd heard mixed reviews about it from friends and family, but was generally looking forward to it. It was about what I'd expected. Visually pleasant (not quite stunning), amiable, likable characters, and a so-so story. I'm not entirely sure what the point of the movie was. I guess something to do with the way a story is remembered and told versus how it actually happened. It sort of reminds me of the end of the movie Radio Flyer, where the narrator, Tom Hanks, tells the kids that the story he told was how her remembered it. The ending of that film was pretty implausible, and you kind of want to know what really happened. Not so with Big Fish, but you're still wondering how much was truth and how much was fiction. Though I guess the point was that it doesn't really matter. I don't know.
One thing that was pretty remarkable was the striking resemblances of the actors who played different versions of the same characters. Ewan McGregor was passable as a younger Albert Finney, but Allison Lohman might look exactly like Jessica Lange in 30 years. And the actress who played the younger Helena Bonham-Carter bore an incredible likeness as well. So that was likeable. All in all, it wasn't great, but it was kind of one of those movies that makes you like going to the movies.Before the movie, we had dinner at Cafe Orlin on St. Marks. A few interesting notes. For some reason, I can remember just about every meal I've eaten there, and every table I sat at. Also, and this was somewhat distracting for the second half of the meal, I saw a woman who bore an uncanny resmblance to a girl I dated in my sophmore year of college. At first I casually mentioned it to Miss CM, but the more I looked at this girl, the more it looked like her. I couldn't help but stare, which made MCM a bit uncomfortable. Not because she's bother by me staring at other girls, but just bother by me staring at people in general, which I tend to do. But it was really, really distracting. Of course, the chance of it being her were remoted, as last I heard she lives near Chicago and is married, and I saw no wedding ring. Speaking of wedding rings, while watching Big Fish yesterday, for some reason I thought Billy Crudup, who was sporting a gold wedding band, looked quite good wearing that ring. For some reason, there are certian people who just seem to carry a wedding band really well. Like it completes their look. Apparently, he's one of those people. I'm not sure why I think this. Anyway, by the end of dinner, the curiosity was killing me. She looked like her, acted like her, chewed her food like her, made the same hand gestures. Of course, it's been about five years since I'd last seen her, so I don't really remember these things. I was tempted to walk by and just mumble her name to see if she'd look up, but I left without saying anything to her. The guy she was with totally looked like someone she'd date though.
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