Thursday, September 15, 2011

TIFF Tuesday Sept 13

So we decided to see one film earlier in the day, skip an evening film and instead go to dinner after seeing W.E. And we had a really good day. Val went home Monday night, I stayed with my sister Jean, Sandy and Mavis stayed in a suite at Mom's retirement home. By the time I caught up with them at the Whole Foods cafe, they had a suggestion for our first film of the day - The Oranges. I managed to get tickets via my iPad while we had our coffee and croissants and off we went to Ryerson Theatre. What a treat. Absolutely fabulous! The cast included Hugh Laurie, Katherine Keener, Oliver Platt and Alison Janney - old favorites - plus several younger actors whose work I am less familiar with. They were all wonderful, the story was complex and a bit cringe-inducing but laugh out loud funny. Great script and direction.

Then we booted it on down to the Elgin theatre to see W.E. Hmmmm. Madonna is not a Barbra Streisand. I could not put my finger on it - something in the script, direction or cutting was just not quite right. Terrific visuals, great work by the cast especially by the two actors who played Wallace Simpson and her contemporary counterpart, Wally. Why was it good but not great? There was something about the back and forth in the first third that didn't work. What was the good doctor all about other than a nasty partner? Sandra dozed off a couple of times. Enough said.

We dropped in to say hi to Mom on our way to Sassafras where my sister Mary joined us. None of us spotted any stars. In fact, when we got there we were one of just a few full tables. But our waiter was delightful and the food was delicious. I had a 'badass' mojito, the lamb, and the peach dessert with coffee. We were given an amazing amuse bouche of watermelon, olive and watercress before and delicious chocolates after. Definitely worth the trip and the investment.

Home on the GO and baffed all day Wednesday.

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