It's been an absolutely wonderful week here in Western, NY, and today was nice up until about an hour ago when it got gloomy and rainy. Pretty soon (sooner than I want to admit) it will be time to start mowing again. Oh who am I kidding, I enjoy mowing. For some reason I find it relaxing. I'm sick, sick, sick.

Went to see the new Sydney Pollack film, The Interpreter. I've always enjoyed Pollack as a director whether it was Tootsie, Out Of Africa, The Firm, Three Days Of The Condor, Absence Of Malice and even a semi-dud film like Random Hearts. Sean Penn is really a fine actor and Kidman, of course, is a fine actress. I've only disliked Kidman in one film I've seen her in and that was Cold Mountain (but only because she was terribly miscast). The writing is smart and the plot is very timely (genocide in Africa, terrorist plotting in the US). The ending is clever even if it is a bit convoluted. It's, for me, the first popcorn film of the season. And many more to come I'm sure.

Speaking of Kidman, I also saw the movie Birth (now on video) which stars Kidman as a woman who loses her husband only to encounter, 10 years later, a child who claims he is her dead husband reincarnated. Everyone is disbelieving, even Kidman at first, and are sure it's not her dead husband. There's a twist near the end with one of the characters that explains some of what has been going on but Kidman's character becomes so certain that the boy is her dead husband she even takes a bath with him and considers sleeping with him. The best scene in the movie is when Kidman's fiancee grabs the kid in the middle of a wedding rehearsal dinner and proceeds to whip his bottom. I only wish he had whipped some sense into Kidman's character. The ending is disappointing and will not satisfy but the kid was well cast......CREEPY!!!!!!!

That's all for now.

Enjoy your evening.

paul