WATCHING—COMEDY, ADVENTURE, CRIME
Don’t Look Up (Netflix)
Don’t Look Up is both a funny film and a sobering one. When a comet is on the horizon that will destroy the earth, the hapless president dithers and does little. The scientists who have plotted its course are ignored and ridiculed. The film is both a spoof and a satire targeting politicians, egocentric celebrities, and huckster entrepreneurs hawking worthless devices. But despite its comic moments, it is a doomsday story.
There’s an all-star cast with Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead scientist, Meryl Streep marvelously inept as the U.S. president, and Mark Rylance almost unbelievable as the tech giant, along with Jennifer Lawrence and Cate Blanchett. It’s definitely a change of pace from some other recent film offerings.
Around the World in 80 Days (PBS Masterpiece)
I saw the original film of Jules Verne’s adventure tale when I was about 8 years old. It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater and going to see it was special.
This new version of Around the World in 80 Days has a more diverse cast with a young woman, Miss Fix, as the accompanying reporter, and a Black man playing Passepartout, Phileas Fogg’s so-called valet. They are an oddly mismatched lot with diverging aims, but they end up depending on one another for their wellbeing as they encounter riots, marauders, and collapsed bridges.
We are about halfway through the series and enjoying it. David Tennant with his serious mien and upright, almost stiff bearing, makes the perfect Phileas. There are 8 episodes in all.
The Commander (Amazon Prime)
This British crime drama is older (set in early 2000’s) and the technical quality is not that great, but it is diverting and suspenseful entertainment. The series was developed by Lynda La Plante, author of crime novels and creator of Prime Suspect. Each case unfolds over two episodes and there are four seasons in all.
Amanda Burton plays Clare Blake, a high-ranking female commander in London overseeing a group of detectives. The cases, usually involving murder, are gruesome and challenging. As a woman, Clare faces disrespect and outright hostility from some of the male officers on her team. She makes some foolish errors of judgement in the early cases but learns from them and becomes smarter.
Fans of Downton Abbey will be surprised to see a younger Hugh Bonneville as James Lampton, convicted for murder, and just released from prison.
READING—WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Leaving Coy’s Hill by Katherine A. Sherbrooke
When the first history of the 19th century women’s rights movement was written by some of the principals, Lucy Stone got short shrift. Consequently, for some time her contributions were overlooked. Thirty years after her death, her daughter wrote a biography and recently, several others have been published.
Katherine Sherbrooke’s novel, Leaving Coy’s Hill, employs the device of Stone looking back over her life and telling her story to a much younger colleague. Lucy Stone grew up on a farm in Massachusetts, the daughter of a staunch abolitionist father. Early on, she vowed never to wed and to devote herself to the anti-slavery cause. Working as a teacher, she saved enough money to go to college at Oberlin, one of the few institutions open to women. After college, she began traveling around the states giving speeches against slavery. It was hard life of little pay, spare accommodations, and no companions. But Stone was a gifted orator and driven to succeed.
Fortuitously, she became friends with Elizabeth Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Although their approaches differed, the three championed women’s rights—the right to vote and changes to the laws governing marriage and property. Stanton was already married with many children when she became active, Anthony never married, and ultimately, Lucy Stone did.
Sherbrooke’s novel details Stone’s career successes and imagines the conflicts and challenges she faced in her marriage to Henry Blackwell, brother of doctors Elizabeth and Emily.
Lucy attempts to balance love and a child with demanding career objectives, still an issue today. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical novel, and it fleshed out for me additional aspects of the women’s rights movement. Recommended! (~JWFarrington)
