Revolutionary Road

Before I entangled myself in love affairs, I was a simple guy who loved to read books and watch movies and see the theater. It is about time I go back to being the old boring me.

So when I took my day off this last Thursday and Friday, I stayed put in my apartment, tried not think about Joey, and read former Time correspondent Aravind Adiga's Booker-winning debut novel The White Tiger. I have not finished it yet, which depresses me since I used to finish a good book in one sitting. It is so well-written I am almost tempted to write a review by pretending to have finished it.

So I am going to settle for Revolutionary Road, which I saw on DVD last night. A story about a young couple with opposite dispositions and dreams, Revo Road, based on the Richard Yates novel of the same title, tackles Director Sam Mendes's favorite theme: the American suburban family aspiring for the American Dream.


April (Kate Winslet) is an aspiring but unsuccessful actress who finds suburban life dulling and tediously monotonous. Hoping for a fresh start, she suggests to his husband Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio) that they emigrate to Paris. Frank, who despises his job at a typewriter company, agrees. But when Frank succumbs to a lucrative promotion selling first-generation computers and April gets an unwanted pregnancy, their marriage fulfils its doom.

If you have seen American Beauty (well, I know, who hasn't?), it is easy to mark the similarity of theme, storyline, dialogue wit, down to the piano playing faintly in the background. As one New York Daily News review says, Revo Road is "two-thirds Mad Men, and one-third American Beauty." But even if Revo Road lives under the shadow of its smarter elder brother, it has the honest emotional drama that very few directors other than Mendes could muster. As for Kate and Leo, well, they're Kate and Leo. Only Leo's paunch is disgusting.

I almost liked the movie but I am not very fond of the fact that in the end, Frank and April remained hopelessly chained to their circumstances. I like a long winding drama, but I want well-meaning characters to be at least empowered, if not triumphant in the end. Not because I want to feel good, but because good movies are supposed to say one can effect change, despite the odds.

Otherwise, why put a gun in someone's hand when you wont let him pull the trigger?

Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal, this February

I read the graphic novel back in high school but I still remember specific scenes, frames in the book. And that says a lot, since I am never really much of a "graphic-visual" person.

I also have not dared to see the movie version yet, but if ever, I am just going to see it not because it's a movie, but because it's a version of a vastly entertaining work in another genre. And of course, there's Rustom.

A friend informed me Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal will be back this February for its sixth run. Here's what I gleaned from Carlo Vergara's blog:

Ze Schedule:

Feb 6, 13 (Fri) 8PM
Feb 7, 14 (Sat) 3PM & 8PM
Feb 8, 15 (Sun) 3PM & 8PM
Mar 6 (Fri) 8PMMar 7 (Sat) 3PM & 8PM
Mar 8 (Sun) 3PM & 8PM

Ze Ticket pricez:

Ticket prices will be at P500, P600 and P700. (Still pretty reasonable, if you compare them with the ticket prices of other professional theater companies.)

Reserve your tickets thru Lorelei or Paolo at TP:832-1125 loc. 1620 to 1621. Direct Line 832-3661. Or you can contact Lorelei through 09285518645.

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I've seen Eula Valdez once in Mafia in Malate, during an event sponsored by One Bacardi sometime early last year. She's stunning, and she's, what, in her late thirties, early forties? She was with Rufa Mae Quinto, who was ridiculously pretty in a skimpy white dress. Ah, I remember now. It was White Party then at the gay district. Early February-ish.

I have invited friends already to see Zsa Zsa with me, but they wouldn't give me a definite answer. This is one of those times I miss my old friends back in UP; they're always game for even a semi-nice play. Then again, I could book a ticket for two for the 14th or the 15th, and see Ada transform to Zsa Zsa. With my ma.

Vamp revamp: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight

Vampires are fascinating, at least in literature and film (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu, Interview with a Vampire). It is a pity that Stephenie Meyer had to write about them and that it has to be adapted to film. Here's why:

1. The Twilight series do not offer something new. Okay, so Edward and his family play baseball whenever a thunderstorm is in town, but I'm afraid my little sister could come up with something like that. Vegetarian vampires (an oxymoron) aren't also exactly what you'd call new. Consider The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (2001) which was made by HBO in 2007 into the hit series, True Blood. Twilight's only claim to originality perhaps would be its attempt to wed RL Stine and Sweet Valley High, which explains most of the hype.

2. The vampires' special powers (Edward's acute sense of hearing people's thoughts, Alice's clairvoyance) calls Heroes into mind. Never mind that Meyer's first book, Twilight, was first published in 2005 while Heroes premiered in 2006. It could only mean that Meyer traveled into the future to borrow ideas from the critically acclaimed TV series.

3. You could skip a few pages (or scenes, in the movie) and you wouldn't miss a lot. But then again we're dealing with something that panders to American preteens. It could be a great story. I only wish Meyer had been talented enough to tell it. I remember a review snippet on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy which says fans of Middle Earth do not adore Tolkien but his many gifts in showing Middle Earth to those who haven't been there.

4. The book is written in Bella's point of view. Which is fine, only I feel sorry for Bella's character, because there's too little said about her. I have only read the first book, and I know that if I want to find out more about Bella, I need to read the other books in the series. But I just am not curious enough to read more because Bella can be summed up in two words: "Edward's girlfriend."

5. Finally, if one is fond of witticisms in dialogues, one would be better off with Mean Girls ("One time, Regina George punched me in the face. It was awesome!"). There is a one-liner in Twilight that I haven't yet come around into liking: "I am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with Edward Cullen." Ho-hum. Perhaps one of my friends was correct in saying I do not own a heart.

I'm sure I missed more reasons why vampires might feel slighted by Twilight, but I leave that to Meyer's other, more passionate critics. I have a book to finish.

BBC's Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Directed by: David Blair (The Street, Giselle-Adam)
Written by: David Nicholls (Much Ado About Nothing, And When Did You Last See Your Father?)

James Bond girl Gemma Arterton (Quantum Of Solace, St Trinian's; above) is Tess in this 4-million-euro BBC serial which started last September, heralding (in the words of Sally William of the Telegraph) "a new generation of Thomas Hardy adaptations."

I wasn't really a fan of period films, despite the encouraging efforts of my senior highschool English teacher, who was obsessed with 19th century England and the World Wars. Until recently. It began with BBC's The Other Boleyn Girl, which I saw at first because of the costumes and Natalie Portman, and because Eric Bana has always ranked high in my list of beautiful men. And then Becoming Jane, because it stars James McAvoy. And then The Girl With the Pearl Earring, because I loved Colin Firth in Love Actually.


But I guess I look forward to see Tess not because of the finery (though the costumes were splendidly accurate) or the male actors (though Eddie Redmayne as Angel Clare sure looks dashing; above). I'll be waiting for the serial film to hit the Philippines because I want to see that brilliant flashback scene at the end, where Tess and Angel are at the Stonehenge, and they could see from afar the police advancing towards them. It is sunset.

"What is it Angel?" Tess says. "Have they come for me?" Then after that part when Tess solemnly whispers to Clare that she is ready, the scene fades to black and fades back into that scene with Tess dancing on a cliff with the Marlott girls.

But this time when Angel Clare passes by and gets asked by the girls to dance, his eyes fall upon Tess, who smiles at him. 'May I?' Angel asks. Then Tess laughs with delight. The Stonehenge scene is my favorite part of the book, but this ingenious flashback scene is disarmingly heartbreaking. I mean, Angel Clare could have saved Tess (and himself) a lot of trouble, if he had not been such a dork and asked Tess to dance that fateful day. I'm someone who worries endlessly about what-ifs.

sources and photo credits:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/