Pensieve

I've had many thoughts swirling about in my head lately, and of course, by the time I am able to come write, poof, away they go. I am currently reading My Sister's Keeper, which is a first person narrative from multiple points of view. Getting inside the characters' heads always makes me get more inside my own head, a judgmental voice narrating my life, conversing with my own thoughts. It's not so bad, I suppose, to mentally narrate your life. Keeps things interesting. And literary. And I tend to write more when I'm reading narratives. Go figure.

We saw the latest Harry Potter movie this weekend (finally). If we had waited another week, we probably would've missed it entirely; it was already sent to the back of the theater. Movies come and go so quickly now... or maybe it just seems like they don't last as long in theaters anymore. Perhaps that's an indication of an increase in speed in our day-to-day lives [insert snarky remark about where our society is headed]. More likely, though, it is just a reflection of the mounds and mounds of movies (mostly bad ones) that Hollywood keeps pumping out. But we all need some escape, "especially during these hard economic times." After all, movie theaters were full during all those big wars and the Great Depression. We need our information and we need our entertainment and we need it now.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the film. I had just reread the book because I really had no idea what it was about, having read it before getting married and having a baby. (I struggle to recall what life was like before those times and only occasionally do I get brief flashbacks to specific memories; alas, these usually happen when I should be paying attention in church.) And of course, there were many parts of the book that were left out of the film as well as parts that were changed, but I do believe that they almost entirely did the book justice. There were times when I wondered how they were going to weave together particular parts of the story, but it all seemed to come together. Except the part where the Death Eaters attacked the Burrow. I do not remember that happening in the book. I might have been reading that part on a night when I was up particularly late and only half paying attention to the words on the page... I will have to look that one up. I enjoyed the dark swirling motifs throughout the film, heralding the arrival of evil. I was disappointed only in the end; the murder scene was done well (although I wasn't moved to tears), but it bothered me that there was no fight in the hallways of Hogwarts, that evil was able to escape without a fight. It makes the battle seem a lot more one-sided, and I don't think it really is the right message. Rowling had the Order and the DA fight so that it is apparent there is a true struggle going on. The way the movie portrayed it didn't take it beyond the thought that many wizards are still in the dark about Voldemort, that there isn't an all-out war taking place. Beyond that, however, I have no complaints. The characters have grown up, which is lovely to see. Ron's love potion scene is perfect. I, like many others, hope that the funeral will kick off the next movie, but I got the feeling, at the end of the film, that it will be glossed over. After all, there is so much information that needs to go into the next film in order to bring the story to a conclusion, that it is actually being made into two films. That is the misfortune of making a movie out of a 700-page book. So much has to be left out, the extras, the nuances, those more picturesque details, and we are left with little more than a bare-bones story. Enjoyable and substantial enough, but not as filling as all the words written on each page.