mystic shivers

That felt as hard as any slammed-to-the-gils workday. And all we've really done is laundry and grocery shopping. It was a lot of laundry. It was very stuffy. In fact, the discarded Sunday newspapers were really the only good thing, and maybe the cute basset hound that came in toward the end. I knocked over a small child and it didn't even make me feel better. (Kidding, sheez. He sort of knocked himself over on my clothes basket.)

The grocery store was just filled with people who have some sort of impediment to shopping either speedily or normally. Children that actually chase you back up the aisle with their cart to their mother's horror. A slight club foot convention. And lots and lots of college students. (My favorite overheard tidbit: "Well, how long's that good for?" "Oh a coupla days at least." "I don't think I'll cook in the next few days, so I prolly shouldn't."
It took far longer than it should've.

And I think I'm going to have a nap now. Something tells me this is directly related to our horrible, doomed upstairs neighbor. Last week he joined some sort of CD club, in some sort of mildly transparent scam he's probably going to get nailed at and have to give up a year's supply of pot sculpted to look like his first-born child. Apparently, most of the CDs were vintage Bob Dylan. Yes, I was awoken to crashing and throwing of shoes and (to me the most overrated of BD's canon) "Like A Rolling Stone" on repeat. Yes, I hate the upstairs neighbor. Grrrr. Before it got to the point of going up and yelling at them, it stopped. Just before.

Anyway -- Mystic River is both one of the most faithful film adaptions of a book I've ever seen and one of the most successful. It's really quite good, full of stellar performances, unflinching and with the feel of reality to what is a fairly operatic story. Sean Penn and Marcia Gay Harden are AMAZING. So's Tim Robbins. Kevin Bacon doesn't have quite as showy a role, but is also quite good (his character's story in the movie doesn't quite work as well as the others). I wish I hadn't read the book before I saw it. Because it's so similar (only two real departures to the way things are portrayed that I can think of, and neither of them changes the substance of what happens) to the book, I really just found myself missing Dennis Lehane's sharp writing. They do an excellent job in the movie of portraying the inner lives of the characters through dialogue and action, but... One of the best things about the book is how well Lehane does character and how skillfully he dodges around different POVs. So, see the movie then read the book. Or if you've already read it, see the movie and enjoy it.

One of the things I liked best about it is that the people were allowed to look like people would in that fictional neighborhood; the extras looked like real people. The wardrobe and make-up were perfectly chosen.

Good movie.

Now, how 'bout that nap.