Pizza, Cookies And Hugo

Had an intimate chat-with-lunch gathering at the Tapias with both Rodrigo and Sylvia, as well as with Randy who braved the drive down from Orange County just to hang out with us. Our gathering began with picking up a deliciously large combo pizza from the newly remodeled outdoor food area of a local Costco and finished with amazingly good chocolate chip cookies that Sylvia had baked. (I helped mix, so yay for Peter’s contribution.) There was much chatting in between bites. This was a very orally-focused assemblage.

After Randy’s departure the three of us remaining sat down to watch “Hugo,” for the very first time. Fifteen minutes into the movie we all decided it wasn’t as engaging or interesting as we were hoping. It looked great, but didn’t completely hold out interests. (Proof of that could be seen in how we got more excited about noticing the cameos of both Johnny Depp (producer) and director Martin Scorsese than we did about what was occurring onscreen.)  I’ve always enjoyed any role Ben Kinglsey has played, but here he just seemed to be constantly mis-directed. I also felt that the kids always seemed to be acting and were not very natural, although I think Chloe Grace Moretz is destined to be very good. I’ve never been a big Sash Baron Cohen fan, and this movie did nothing to change that. I really felt his character was out of place and his performance a bit forced. And the minor side-story of Richard Griffiths as Monsieur Frick and Frances de la Tour as Madame Emilie just seemed like an unimportant distraction that I didn’t care about. The main storyline was intriguing, but it was just presented in a bit of a boring and disjointed way. That lasted until the final fifteen minutes of the movie when it finally became emotionally and dramatically interesting. If the entire movie would have been like the last fifteen minutes I would have enjoyed it much more. I do have to admit though, that I really delighted in the probably accurate look at how old silent classics used to be made. All said and done, I’d have to say my two favorite performances were from Jude Law in his all-too minor role, and from Helen McCory as Mama Jeanne, and that I’m glad the movie didn’t win Best Picture at the Oscars.