Film: According To My Wife -- Addendum to the Supplemental

My patient and virtuous wife wisely feels that the choice of "16 Going on 17" to represent The Sound of Music in POS(AS)'s Valentine's Day movie extravaganza gave short shrift to the burning eroticism of Julie Andrews' and Chritopher Plummer's performances as Maria and the Captain. Of course she's right and to rectify this, here is a clip of them getting all horned up singing "Something Good":

Film: According To My Wife -- Supplemental

My talented and sassy wife feels that she missed a key film in yesterday's Valentine's Day themed list. No, not Ernest Takes a Lover (the only film in the Ernest series set in France and directed by Eric Rohmer).

The Sound of Music has it all: singing, Nazis, children, nuns. Most of all it has what my wife describes as a "steamy" romance between uppity would-be nun Julie Andrews and stern disciplinarian Christopher Plummer as Captain Van Trapp. Then for the youngsters there's the romance between Von Trapp's daughter and a young German soldier.

Here's "Sixteen going on Seventeen", which Charmain Carr performs on a sprained ankle! The bandages were digitally removed for the DVD release:

Film: According To My Wife -- Valentine's Day Edition

My beautiful and charming wife has a soft spot for films of a romantic nature. Fittingly in honor of Valentine's Day she has come up with her 10 favorite romantic films. So curl up with a loved one and max out your Netflix account with these fine choices:


1) Moulin Rouge
Baz Luhrmann's eye-popping ear-bending musical extravaganza is a big candy-coated paen to love and integrity. Our lovers are played by saucy Nicole Kidman and winsome Ewan MacGregor. What is love but a melding and mash-up of two worlds? So the film splices bolly- and Hollywood, The Police with tango, 1880's Paris with punk rock. A post-modern musical with it's heart on it's sleeve.


2) Brokeback Mountain
The "love that dares not speak it's name" prefers to shuffle it's feet and mumble stoically in Ang Lee's cowboys in love drama. This time the lovers are played by a never-better Heath Ledger, tamping down his true feelings into a monotonal hunch and by a daring fun-loving Jake Gyllenhaal. Society tells them "No" but they just can't quit each other.


3) When Harry Met Sally
The film that launched the rom-com craze of the 90s (which continues today) and also established Meg Ryan's reign as the woman most likely to be matched with a guy du jour in a romantic comedy. It's a bonifide classic, asking the eternal question, "Can men and women just be friends?" There's also great support from the late Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher.


4) The Price of Milk
This offbeat film from New Zealand has it all : cows, an agoraphobic dog, Maoris. The surrealism captures the fantastical (and sometimes tricky) world that lovers create together. Not to be confused with the Ed Harris / Melanie Griffith let's-chip-in-and-buy-Dad-a-hooker flick Milk Money this independent gem stars Karl Urban, soon to appear as Dr. McCoy in JJ Abrams' update of Star Trek.


5) The Princess Bride
The search for and devotion to "true love" forms the backbone of this comic adventure. Rob Reiner's surehanded adaptation of screenwriter William Goldman's (also wonderful) novel features Cary Elwes and Robin Wright (now Robin Wright Penn) as the gorgeous young lovers torn asunder by a scheming Prince Humperdinck.


6) Serendipity
The random nature of love comes to the fore in Serendipity, starring chick-bait John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale, along with Molly Shannon and former Cusack sidekick Jeremy Piven. Cusack and Beckinsale test the meaning of fate, which ultimately has it's way with the two would-be lovers.


7) Holiday
Delightful Cary Grant / Kate Hepburn vehicle (not to be confused with the Jack Black / Love Mecha / Kate Winslet / Cameron Diaz rom-com The Holiday). Grant is set to marry Hepburn's materialistic sister until he realizes that goofy free-thinker Hepburn is the one he loves all along. Splendid dialogue, great cartwheels.


8) Love Story
This five hanky pic was a surprise hit upon it's release. Ali McGraw plays spunky dirty-mouthed Jenny to Ryan O'Neill's rich kid Oliver. He gives up his family wealth to be with her but alas, fate intervenes. Directly responsible for my wife's birth.


9) Frankie and Johnny
Underrated film adaptation of Terrence McNally's play Frankie and Johnny in the Claire De Lune. Critics carped at the casting but what's to complain about when you have a charming Al Pacino dialing down his late-period overacting and sharp Michelle Pfeiffer getting gritty as our two struggling lovers.


10) Two Days in Paris
Here's my original review of this gem. A frequently hilarious look at how cultural differences can test the course of love, directed and written by the wonderful Julie Delpy and starring she and Adam Goldberg.

According to My Wife: Tim Russert is a Big Bully

Russert: Off our Christmas List

According to my wife Tim Russert is a big bully for bodyslamming fun-sized FLILF-mate Dennis Kucinich at last night's Democratic Presidential debate. Scrappy Kucinich was feeding the party base red meat all night, clearly hoping to get some headlines with his impeach Bush and Cheney message. Then Russert fixed his beady stare on amiable Kucinich and went in for the kill. You know a question is going to be trouble when it starts with the name "Shirley MacLaine", a convenient shorthand for "crazy batshit nuts". Here's the full question:

"The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you sighted a UFO over her home in Washington state...

(Laughter)

... that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a "triangular craft, silent and hovering," that you "felt a connection to your heart and heard directions in your mind."
Now, did you see a UFO? "

Kucinich seemed taken aback and his answer was a little jumbled as a result. He didn't get to the real heart of the question which was "Are you some kind of lunatic?" But was this really a necessary question to pose to a decent man of integrity who doesn't stand a chance of winning the White House? Or just a great way to kill a nascent impeachment movement that leaders of both parties would like to see go away? The softball question the usually irascible Russert tossed Obama afterwards suggests that at least subconsciously, he would like to see the field thinned to the "real" candidates and perhaps this was his way of helping to thin it. Still, that's no way to treat a guy who has run a brave and honest campaign... according to my wife.

According To My Wife: Of The Brothers Wilson, Andrew is Handsomest

The Wilson Brothers

This post is the first in a new feature here at POS(AS), According To My Wife, in which the musings and insights of my beautiful wife Tracy are faithfully shared with my tens of readers.
Last night my beloved turned to me and thrust a copy of Star Magazine in front of my face.
Her delicate finger was placed on a photo of the Wilson brothers: troubled Owen, brunette Luke, and the heretofore unknown to me Andrew.

"Andrew", she said,"is the handsomest of the Wilson brothers."

I inspected the photo. Next to Owen's penile proboscis and Luke's spud-shaped skull was a specimen of manliness that was near-perfect in visage. Andrew, the oldest Wilson brother, may only have played roles like Coach Beck in Rushmore and gladiator Beef Supreme in Idiocracy but he's more than just another Clint Howard. Hunky, hirsute Andrew is ready to step out on his own, having directed Luke in 2005's The Wendell Baker Story. More to the point, his bearded, Kris Kristoffersson meets Patrick Swayze look beats his brothers hands down. According to my wife.