State of Play, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

State of Play is an excellent movie. It's a twisty, turny thriller starring Ben Affleck, Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren. The movie opens with a petty thief being gunned down in an alley, which is the catalyst to uncovering a vast conspiracy. I don't want to say much more about the plot which keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Take it from me, don't drink a large Coke while watching this movie because you won't want to get up for a bathroom break.

I should have caught The Other Boleyn Girl in the theaters, but I'm glad I finally did see it. It's a great depiction of the story of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII starring Natalie Portman and Eric Bana, as well as Scarlett Johansson who plays Anne's sister Mary. I never knew Anne had a sister and that she was actually the king's lover first. Great story, very well acted. Definitely catch this one if you haven't already.

I took a chance on The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and it was way to boring and weird for me. I can't recommend this movie, which I ended up fast forwarding through. It's the true story of a guy who had a stroke that resulted in locked-in story. He wrote a book by communicating with blinks of his one good eye. It sounds interesting and inspiring, but you really have to want to watch this kind of movie to make it through the whole thing.

Royal Assassin

Royal Assassin is the second book in Robin Hobbs' Farseer trilogy, and as far as second books in trilogies go, this one was pretty darn good! The overall story arch progressed nicely and there was actual character development (things both generally missing in second books of trilogies).

The story continues to follow young FitzChivalry, bastard grandson and assassin to the dying King Shrewd, as he weaves his way through life in the royal court serving both Shrewd and king-in-waiting Verity, while the Shrewd's youngest son Regal weaves his nasty web of deceit and betrayal. The Red Ship Raiders continue to attack the coast and turn all survivors into zombie-like beings. In a desperate attempt to save the kingdom, Verity leaves his ailing father and pregnant wife in the hands of shady Regal so he can pursue the Elderlings spoken of in their land's ancient lore who were said to have some special power that may help end the coastal attacks. Needless to say, everything goes to hell in a hand basket.

This is a wonderful, well-written story. It was almost heartbreaking to read about the internal destruction of the kingdom and the king's court at the hands of dastardly Regal. I thought it had a great ending (which I will not reveal here). I'm looking forward to reading the last of this trilogy, as well as the other books Hobbs has written about this brilliant world she's created.

Adventureland

Adventureland is a coming of age story set in 1987 as James graduates from undergrad, then faces the harsh realization that his parents can't afford to finance his summer trip to Europe or his graduate school even though he was accepted to Columbia. As a journalism major he's unqualified to do anything except work in a dumpy amusement park. Here he learns more life lessons than he ever learned in college, and he falls in love.

This is more of a 'dramedy' (sorry to use this word - I'm not a big fan of it) than a comedy. Much of the humor is in the horrible clothes, hair, make up, and music throughout the movie. The main 'soundtrack' is comprised of bands like The Cure, Husker Du, The Replacements, and, for some gawdawful reason, Lou Reed. But the film also gives a nod to the other genres of 80s music. For example, Rock Me Amadeus plays incessantly at the amusement park driving everyone crazy. (Feel free to admit to yourself that you owned the '45 back in the day - you know you did). And one of my favorite scenes was James running for his life from a dumb thug who wanted to beat him up while Breaking The Law by Judas Priest played in the background.

It was a good film that had more of an indy feel to it. It's worth seeing, especially if you grew up in the 80s, but it's not necessary to catch it in the theaters.

Assassin's Apprentice

Lucky me to have downloaded Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb on my Kindle for free. Yes, I'm addicted to the free books offered on the Kindle, but the 'lucky' part is that this book is actually good and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it; in fact I plan to read the whole series and possibly everything Robin Hobb ever wrote. (This, I am sure, was the diabolical reasoning behind the free offering, like giving a person one M&M knowing that they will certainly eat more...tricksy, tricksy.)

The story begins with a grandfather dumping his six year old grandson at the king's castle because he can no longer afford to feed and clothe the child, who is apparently the bastard son of the prince first in line to the throne. The book is the story of the boy, who they call Fitz (which means illegitimate son) and how he grows up in the castle keep, not quite royalty but not quite commoner. He is taught many skills by many experts, one of which (you guessed it) is how to be a subtle assassin. The assassin's trade deals with poison's and herbology as opposed to the skills he learns with weapons.

But Fitz has a two unique abilities of his own that set him apart from everybody else. First, he is very powerful but very unstable with the 'Skill,' a form of telepathy that runs in the genes of some royalty. Once honed, the Skill can be used to influence what people think (for example, I could touch your mind without you even knowing it and have you bring me a bag of M&Ms). Fitz's other ability is the 'Wit' which is extremely shunned so he has to keep it a secret from everyone. Wit is not only the ability to connect minds with animals, but to possibly bond with one of them, thus eventually turning your mind into something much more savage and animalistic.

The story unfolds as Fits learns all these things while he grows up in the midst of royal intrigue and scheming. He learns what it truly means to be a 'king's man' and all the sacrifices that entails. One of my favorite characters in the book is the Fool, who is the least foolish person in the book. I will leave it up to you to discover the meaning behind "Fitz fixes feists fits. Fat suffices." I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.

Sunshine Cleaning and Heavenly Creatures

Sunshine Cleaning was an even better movie than I hoped for. It stars Amy Adams and Emily Blunt as sisters who start a crime scene cleaning service to make some money, and Alan Arkin who plays their father. While there are several funny scenes in the movie, it's a poignant drama about a family coping with the suicide of their mother/wife two decades later, and how her loss still deeply touches them all. It's an excellent movie and well worth your time to watch it.

My latest movie rental was Heavenly Creatures (1994) which, like Sunshine Cleaning, was better than I was expecting. It's a true story starting Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey as girls who develop an intensely close relationship in prep school in the 1950s. Their parents are disturbed by this relationship and the extremely elaborate fantasy world they've created for themselves. One of them is forced to move to South Africa and the other is not allowed to go with her, so the two girls kill one of their mothers in an attempt to stay together. It took me a little while in the beginning of the movie to realize that all the hokey melodramatic music was a device that kept the viewers in the girls' constant existence in their fantasy world. Once I got past that I really got into the movie. I definitely recommend this one.