Procrastinating...Obviously

Don't ask me why, but I'm uncontrollably procrastinating via the blogosphere right now. Maybe it's because I'll have a bit more work time this week while H is gone. Or maybe it's because I'm tired of my blog ideas disappearing in my brain because I don't post them in a timely manner. Anyway, here are a few more things I wanted to mention:

1 - Notes on a Scandal. I know this has been out for quite a while, but just watched it this weekend, and I loved it! It's based on a novel, but I've heard several people say that this is one of the rare instances in which the movie is better than the book - gasp! It's very Single White Female without the cheese factor. Judi Dench plays a character that we rarely get to see on film: a woman with a real body and a marginalized sexuality, living in fantasy world because it's the only one afforded to her by society. I didn't realize there was a queer factor to movie's plot, but she and Kate Blanchett work brilliantly together to illustrate some quite complicated issues that women find themselves faced with everyday: how to forge friendships with other women; how to be a mother and a sexual being while in a marriage that has long since lost its newlywed factor; how to maintain an authentic identity of ones own while caught in the trap of society's expectations of women. Dench has a bathtub scene in which her body is shown in all the glory of its age and size. The sagginess of her arms, the bits of cellulite on her thigh, the uncertain shape of what may or may not be her breast in the water. No make-up. Just the smoke of her constant cigarette and a glass of wine to keep her company. As much as I hate to categorize movies in terms of gender, this is a movie for women, and it's done brilliantly (pedophilia aside).

2 - Ratatouille. I actually don't like most kids movies. I don't know what went wrong with me, but I never was really into cartoons, animation, kid's stuff in general when I was a child. I stopped watching cartoons before I was 8, and I only watched a select few prior to that. Accompanying the child to the newest kid's flick is the one part of parenting I could really do without. I make an exception for Ratatouille. Unlike Shrek or Cars, both of which seemed to work very hard at including some humor for the appeal of adults, Ratatouille does not. It keeps things simple and focused on the kids. The reason I loved it: food! I've got lots of food issues. Love to cook it. Love to eat it. Love to look at it in the grocery store. This movie is an animated culinary delight that leaves you looking for the nearest bistro. H loved it too, and was equally moved to ask, as we walked out of the theater, if we could go to Paris! It's honestly funny, and not in the potty way, but in the witty way that cartoons often aren't, so I just had to give it my heartiest recommendation to other parents.

Okay, enough procrastination. Though I'm sure something else will come to me, I simply must get some work done.

Edited to Add: Okay, so not too bad. I still managed to get 3 pages written, and I didn't even have a full work day.