Forgetting

Lisa and I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall last night. Very very funny. Hilarious. Dragged at times (Apatow lets his actors write, and his writers direct, so sometimes they -- at least this is my take -- become so enamored of their work... that they could use a little tightening up). But because of it, we get fully rounded characters (not two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs, either all good or all evil)... so a pretty fair trade-off.

And absolutely hilarious... screaming "I'm sorry!" while chasing a pig to slaughter ... "I'm not sure I'm sexually competent enough to pull that off" ... "Die, die die... I can't" from a Dracula musical (with puppets) ... "I can see your vagina from down here" (said by the incredibly gorgeous Mila Kunis to the male star)

And while this is the most "realistic" of the Apatow-related works (not about a 40 year-old virgin, a schlub who hooks up with a beautiful TV anchor, or a parody of a 50's rock pioneer), it still falls into a male-written and -directed cliche: even though he's dumped by a fairly--ok, very--attractive Kristen Bell, it's that stunning aforementioned Kunis [move over, Tina Fey] (who for a moment in the movie seemed to me to be a younger--and maybe more normal--Angelina Jolie... or was that just because a trailer for her new movie preceded the film?)... it's the more attractive woman who falls for him.

Ah, it's good to be king (of the set). Or at least the writer, who happened to be the lead actor.

It was a good get-away after a tough week. GG's home and has been visited by multiple home-care specialists... looks like they want to dump the cane in preference to a walker (and possibly a wheelchair). But at least she's home and seemingly well. Kyle's shoulder is beginning to feel a little better.

[there was also a slight scare yesterday... Lisa got a call from a counselor at Kyle's school... an acquaintance of his--unnamed--had been called in on an unrelated subject and it was learned that s/he had been cutting her/himself. It was intimated that Kyle was doing this as well. Lisa called me to tell me this, but we both had a hard time swallowing this. There's been no change in behavior or attitude (other than the usual adolescent bs... but no real sullenness or reclusivity)... and plus, HE WEARS A SPEEDO EVERYDAY... kinda hard to hide those cuts. So we took him out for a smoothie, just the three of us, and we broached the subject. He said that a friend of his had been called to the office to discuss cutting people's backpacks, but he didn't know if this person had been doing the self-mutilation. We talked about emotional upheavals and what we all can do help each other and our friends. We asked if he had been cutting himself... his response and facial reaction said it all: nooooo, are you crazy? I joking said that because of his water polo/speedo thing, that we were pretty sure that was the answer, but that I would need him to drop trou when we got home... non-plussed, he said sure (very quickly)... Lisa and I burst out laughing... it was a JOKE, Kyle.]

So yeah, it had been a hard week, and so Forgetting was good...