A couple of gems

We're keeping busy, but the weather's not always been helpful. Rain and strong winds have slowed Grace's progress towards painting the Roses and Castles. Yesterday too hot for the paint. Today too, probably. I've done all that's needed to the engine to have it ready for the next cruise. And there's a list of other bits and pieces for us to do which could wait for a couple of weeks if necessary. Painting has to take priority.

Having seen Simon Pegg playing Benji in Mission Impossible the other week, we chose an inclement day more recently to see him in Absolutely Anything.

"A council of aliens, travelling from planet to planet to see what kind of species inhabit them, take a look at Earth. If they find the people to be "decent" by their standards, they are welcomed to be their friends. If not, the planet is destroyed. To find out, they choose one inhabitant and give that person the power to do whatever they want. On Earth, they choose Neil Clarke, a teacher who is constantly being berated by his headmaster. He is attracted to his neighbour, Catherine but doesn't have the courage to approach her. But now he can do anything he wants, he has to be careful."

Very silly, very funny and great entertainment. With a top cast, too. Though not very well reviewed yet.

Unlike cinema-viewed films, DVD viewings don't usually get a mention on this blog, but today I have to make an exception. Two exceptions, in fact. Grace and I have recently watched a couple of DVDs from the marina library, and both of them were absolute gems.

Australia, a 2008 production starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, is another film which is underrated on IMDB. But it's a film with a good story, a lot of human interest, humour and pathos, action, and a good dose of mystery.

"In northern Australia at the beginning of World War II, an English aristocrat inherits a cattle station the size of Maryland. When English cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man to drive 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the country's most unforgiving land, only to face the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbour only months earlier."

The second gem is Blessed (2008). James Nesbitt co-stars with 8 year-old Lil Woods in a moving, inspiring story.

"A successful city trader suddenly loses everything he truly cares about. Seeking comfort in isolation on a remote island, his life is turned upside down by the arrival of a little girl."

That's all you need to know really. Watch it! In interview, James Nesbitt said that the role of Peter was one he'd waited his whole professional life to play. The particular challenge was the lack of dialogue (he says not a word for about half of the duration of the film) and the need to develop the character without words.