Book/Movie Rec: Auspicious Beginnings for 2013!

[retsuko]

In Books:

The Incense Game, by Laura Joh Rowland (Sano Ichiro mysteries, #16): Beginners beware, this is not the place to start this excellent series; you'll spend too much time wondering who is who, and not enough marveling at Rowland's ability to spin a murder mystery in the middle of a tale about recovery from terrible disasters. The story

Comments

[jtaylor2]

I saw Les Mis with some girlfriends the other day and I found Russell Crowe's performance to be SO detrimental to the movie. I have to say that "Stars" is one of my favorite songs from the musical, second only to "Do you hear the people sing?", and it just fell flat for me. I thought he had the look but he contributed too much talk-singing. He should have belted out "Stars" on that rooftop, but he just doesn't have the voice for it.

I loved Anne Hathaway's performance and young Cosette's "Castle on a Cloud" - I cried and I'm just not a waterworks kind of lady. They were both so beautiful. But, I have to say that I was more struck by Samanatha Bark's performance as Eponine. Holy cow, she made my hair stand on end!

Some credit should be given for Sasha Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter's performance. I thought it was a welcome element of dark whimsy where you would otherwise find mere cruelty.

[retsuko]

I was disappointed with "Stars", too. I agree that he *looks* the part, but somewhere along the line, I think he lost his nerve, esp. on the singing front.

Eponine's voice was fabulous, and I think the actress really did the part great justice, but I found myself wanting to take the character aside and say, "Honey, other fish are in the sea." I think this is a major difference between high school!me and present!me. ;)

[jtaylor2]

I liked that she was a more 'subtle' beauty and not like a mussed up supermodel. I still enjoy the unrequited love. ;)