::Kit's Movie Reviews::

 

This Month's Kit Flick:

The Accidental Tourist

 

From a story by Anne Tyler (whose writing I love), this is the story of a grief-stricken man (the young and gloriously handsome William Hurt) who is brought back to life by a ditzy dog trainer (Geena Davis, who won an Oscar for her role.) He is a travel writer attempting to move on after the fatal drive-by shooting of his innocent son who was sitting in a fast food restaurant having lunch. The tragedy brings his marriage to an end and he is emotionally dead. The only thing he has left of his son is taking care of the boy’s dog. But the dog hates him and bites his ankles.

Enter Geena Davis, the no-nonsense prototype of my favorite hero on TV, Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. The story is fabulous and touching and uplifting.

 

I love movies.

Not all of them, of course, but the ones I love I treat the same way I treat my favorite books—I pick them up again, every year or so, and enjoy them once more. Movies have certainly influenced me. My protagonists, Margot and Max, are in the movie business. My real life daughter is an art director (as well as the cover artist for my stories). Her significant, Marc Greville, is a production director. I’ve had the thrill of being on location shoots, watching sets being created, taken inside tours of the studios, suffered with them when business is slow. And, most of all, listening, listening, to everything that is said around me. Gossip is great for the creative mind!

And movies are fascinating to watch being made. They are such complicated entities. All those people, hundreds of them, all working at their separate jobs, from writer to electrician, lighting director to editor to gaffer. Each group working toward one goal, a completed film.

When finally completed, I think there’s so much to look at while viewing a movie. I like to concentrate sometimes on just the actors, then there’s the production direction, or the music, or the editing or try not looking at the screen and just listen to the dialogue. Fascinating. A good movie is worth multiple viewings, just as a good book can be enjoyed over and over.

Each month I'll talk about some of my faves==all available on DVD. Enjoy!