Adaptation
Friday night’s movie fix was a fun piece from Europe. The Owners (2020) has a common cinematic theme — robbery gone haywire. Three male boneheads attempt to rob an isolated English estate while the owners are out for dinner. The girlfriend of one tries to reason with them and is dragged into the affair. She is played by Game of Thrones alum Maisie Williams. I was not familiar with the actors who play the three clods, despite their extensive credits. The more interesting members of the cast are the old couple. Although Sylvester McCoy seemed familiar, I did not spot any work I might have seen among his credits, although he did serve time as Dr. Who and has been working steadily since 1965. I did not recognize Rita Tushingham, now 78, who has been at it since ’61. I won’t play the spoiler and reveal the bizarre happenings. I wasn’t sure I understood all of it, so I consulted a web article by Jack Wilhelmi at screenrant.com, and it helped a lot, although he thought the creators left a lot for viewer speculation. The film was directed by Frenchman Julius Berg, his first big screen effort after two shorts and extensive work in TV. He co-wrote the screenplay with Mathieu Gompel and Geoff Cox, based on the graphic novel Une Nuit De Pleine Lune by Belgian artist Hermann and writer Yves H.. This is one of those instances where there is a significant difference in my opinion and that of the folks who rated it at IMDb, 4800+ of whom forge to a consensus of 4.8 on a scale of ten. I’ll go with 6.5. The Owners is not boring and not totally predictable. Anyone squeamish about violence should pass. There is also considerable profanity. It runs only 92 minutes, a plus. Here are pics of Tushingham in character and in her youth:
Headline from foxnews.com: “California proposal would ban boys and girls sections from stores.”
It’s spring break time in sunny F-L-A, which is open for business. Photo from FN:
The Covid relief bill has passed. Only 9% of it goes to Covid relief.
The weather was far from ideal for curbside sales, but I soldiered on despite early flurries and lack of sunshine. I spent about a third of the session in the old Hyundai. Fortunately, conditions didn’t deter folks from ponying up. My thanks to the gentleman who bought eleven books in Russian, and to the woman who donated ten and insisted on paying for the one she took home; and to the one who purchased four while waiting for a friend; and to the one who chose one. Here’s some of what sold in English: Hide and Seek by Fern Michaels, one from the Tom Clancy Op-Center series; Next by Michael Crichton; The Art of SpeedReading People: How to Size People Up and Speak Their Language by Barbara Barron and Paul D. Tieger; and a volume of Brain Games puzzles.
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