in america

so in avoidance of the father, i convinced mom to see a movie she had suggested as an alternate to last night's "family fun extravaganza"... independent film only at studio on the square (nicer theater 25 minutes across town from us) called "in america"

honestly, one of the best movies i've seen all year if not the best. maybe because it was about starting over, maybe because it was about dealing with death and tough stuff, maybe because of a lot of things.

it was independent and so it was more lifelike and less flashy than a lot of other movies out right now. story of an irish family who came to the states and started over in NYC with not much to their name (and still had not much at the end), but learned to cope w/ life in general. apparently just before the movie, they had lost a kid to a brain tumor and were starting over across the world from all those memories... the two remaining kids did a respectable job dealing with their feelings in the open, the parents not so much... finally by the end, after loosing a neighor to a similar plight and almost losing another kid, they all kinda came to terms in one way or another... it was just a very hard core -- "this is life -- what do you choose to make of it?" kind of story... the last scene was really good... the one girl maybe 10 years old had been obsessed with her camcorder the whole time... so the last scene has her watching frankie (her brother who had died before the movie) on a video she had taken.... she comments "i'll turn this off now... it's not how i want to see frankie anymore"... focus shifts to her face across the screen while her monologue continues.... then fades to a view of downtown manhattan lit up at night "... do you remember me? what i look like? that's the kind of picture i want in my head of frankie... one that will go on living forever... and next time i talk to him, i'll ask him if he'll please please let go of me now"

just a real honest movie about dealing with the hard stuff in life... i really really liked it and would highly recommend it... really glad mom and me saw it.

now, to finish that hideous strength =)... later =P