American Movie

I saw 'Farewell' last week at the Charles Theatre, and in contrast wanted to see George Clooney in 'The American' today. Both were movies about spies, but the styles and perspective of the two movies were entirely different. The former was about a Russian idealist who wanted to change the world by revealing secrets to the west through a French businessman. He does it for his son and for Russia, and is executed at the end although his actions change the course of Russian history forever. 'The American' is about the last days of a spy who wants to get out of the business. He spends several weeks in a hill town in Abruzzo, falls in love with a prostitute, and ultimately is killed before he makes his escape from the business. I loved watching Clooney in this very moody and morose role, with gorgeous Italy in the background. I think the reviews were rather negative. The movie moves slowly and often ploddingly. I went to both movies alone, since Eric has no desire to go to movies, and I go when I have a free moment, which does not always give me a chance to invite anyone else.

I picked Maya up from her all day music camp at Peabody and we had planned to go to the Science Museum for the later part of the day, but she received an invitation to join Belina at a block party where a moonbounce was the major attraction. I dropped her off and took advantage of the two hour time slot I had until the Benichous were to come to dinner. I rushed back downtown, found parking close by and coffee at Starbucks and enjoyed the movie. The Benichous are always late, so I was able to get things organized for dinner (I had made a peach cobbler and quiche lorraine earlier in the day) and be ready when they arrived. I had thought that Maya would sleep over with Belina so that Eric and I could go to the Turkish place in town to watch belly dancing, but the children decided to sleep at our house. We put them to bed, drank sangria and bantered for the evening. I had decided that when the children come over to play, there would be no computer games allowed. Marius cried furiously for about an hour, but finally calmed down. I was surprised that he chose to sleep over too. I wondered if he would ever forgive me. Later when the children were in bed, Eric and Julien got on their iphones and ipads and ignored Daphne and I repeatedly. I suppose I know where the children learn their habits.