I don’t often write movie reviews. Actually I’ve never written one. This isn’t a review. Last night the mister was stepping out to a book reading at Turning the Tide Bookstore on Arthur Manual’s book Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-Up Call. A worthy event but I’ve had enough serious and heavy stuff. I went to the movies instead, a rare occasion nowadays for me. It was a good practice to step out on my own and in the evening. I wonder if it’s a sign of aging that I like to huddle at home once the sun sets. I vow to step out more if it proved to be a success.
The movie I chose was The Hero, starring Sam Elliot. I checked out the trailer. Seemed interesting and engaging. Starts at 7:05 pm. Length 90 minutes. Seems pretty good to me. I would get home at a decent time approximately same time as the guy.
Sam Elliot was good to look at, even at 73. He was himself, charming, deep voiced, silver haired and moustached. Not every part of the story hinged together well. It was so much like real life. I didn’t try to understand it. There was romance, the May – December kind but no heated sex scenes. There was none of that wham bang thank you ma’am. No violence. No fast car crashes. But there was Folger’s coffee the next morning.
I did scratch my head at the end wondering is this all? It ended with the same scene as it began. But all in all I did enjoy myself. I stepped out of my everyday evening and was entertained with a gentler story and humour. Though the hero was dying of cancer, there was no dramatic or traumatic death scenes. He didn’t ride off in the sunset either. Sam Elliot was the movie as stated by the review on rogerebert.com. “Elliott could sell us anything, or course—barbecue sauce, whatever—just by showing up and being his formidable, glorious self. But he could use some meatier material.”
onethousandandtwo 