ellen_datlow

Yesterday, I went to see Changeling with my parents at the matinee which cost $5.25 each. Even the night seats are only $7.50 or something like that (less if you're a senior). Compare that to NYC movie theaters, which now cost $12.50 and up. Anyway, the story itself is fascinating (and yes, true)--it's 1928 in LA and a child is abducted. The corrupt LA police, trying to make themselves look good, bring back a young boy discovered in the midwest and claim he's the missing child. The mother denies this, the cops say she's crazy and as she continues to protest and prove that the boy's not her son the authorities get meaner and meaner.

I had read a piece recently in The New Yorker (I think) about the case. Today it seems unbelievable that this could have happened but there are other cases way in the past...I remember seeing Le Retour de Martin Guerre, with Gerard Depardieu who plays a soldier during the middle ages who supposedly returns to the wife he left behind and the town he lived in and although he's a fake, he's accepted by one and all for awhile.

Anyway, my parents both liked the movie. I thought it way too long, the acting pretty good, but unfortunately, Angeline Jolie, who can act, is only so-so in this. She can't hide those lips and she's just too gorgeous, even as they try (totally unsuccessfully) to make her look plain. And the script really did get repetitious as she says throughout the film: "He's not my son." Over and over and over and over and...you get the picture. The bad guy (not the cop) is totally scary with his sang froid (not giving away spoilers).

Today, lunch with my relatives: my dad's baby sister and her husband and one of their kids (my cousin Larry) who has two charming mischievous kids. Photos of them and everyone else when I get home.
Enroute to Fort Lauderdale and back (where we had lunch) I took many many (too many) photos of the magnificent clouds--giant cumulus pillows. One giant thunder cloud, although it never rained.

Tomorrow, my mom and I will probably go to the local fleamarket (which is all new discounted stuff).