Afternoon date

 I’d just about giving up all hope of getting out to see a movie somewhere other than my living room. I thought that with the endless round of cartoons and superheroes that would always be my fate going forward.

And yet, next thing I knew, along came a blurb for a new release with actual people in it. Not only people, but actors I’d watch reading the New York phone book if such a thing still existed.

We went to my favorite cinemas, which sit across the street from Mount Holyoke College. We were going in the afternoon, but they only have two small theatres, so I went on-line and booked our seats.

As it turned out, we would have been fine since the only other people there were four women there as a group. My Guy grumbled a bit at the pre-show chatter going on to his right but everyone settled down as soon as the movie began.

No surprise there, because the movie was “The Roses” with Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumberbach and the dialogue was brilliant. So brilliant that my husband, who’d been dragged to this chick-flick, loved every minute.

I’d seen “The War of the Roses,” a 1980s darker version with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. I did enjoy that, but this iteration was better - fun, frothy, witty, then dark, and of course the acting was magnificent. Both movies are about a power couple who begin with a seemingly perfect marriage but which breaks down over warring goals and possessions.

 

And, for icing on our entertainment cake, we still had time to get home and watch “The Thursday Murder Club” which was released by Netflix that day. Loved it, even though I love Osman’s book versions more. Even though they did cutesy it up a bit, the casting (Helen Mirren! Pierce Brosnan!) saved it from being too saccharine.