Well I'm going to keep this pretty short and sweet because It's quite late, and not an awful lot happened today. In fact, most of my day involved me making some massive headway with 'Cloud Atlas' (review will be up tomorrow) and waiting for my partner to finish work. When he had, that's where the interesting part of my day really kicked in. Firstly, his family have decided that they might be getting a dog. They picked a lovely Springer Spaniel up today named Bella and I think they are rather taken with her. She's very energetic (to be expected, she's only seven months old and in a new place with new people) but very lovely. My boyfriend is head over heels and I really do hope they decide to keep her because she is so so sweet!
After a quick visit to the new dog, we had dinner and then headed out to the cinema to watch 'Out Of The Furnace', in a deluxe screen no less! There will be spoilers here so don't read if you haven't seen it yet and want to wait until you have. Admittedly the trailer never really appealed to me (except for the song they used. I spent so long trying to find it, Heart Of Gold - Demarest) but I heard many good reviews, particularly for the acting and so I gave in and decided to give it a go. The film itself I found to be a strange experience, and I came out not quite knowing where I stood. The story centres around two brothers. Rodney (Casey Affleck), who constantly gets himself in a lot of trouble, and Russell (Christian Bale) who is honest and hard-working and is desperately trying to make his brother see reason. In some strange and cruel irony, Russell seems to have the worst of luck as tragedy after tragedy seems to strike and I felt deeply sorry for him.
I was completely blown away, I would like to note, by Christian Bale's acting. I had read many a review stating that it was his best so far and honestly I can say those comments are justified. Affleck too took me by surprise, and the relationship between Rodney and Russell was just perfect, they hit the nail on the head wonderfully. Of course, what would a film be without a good villain, and let me tell you Woody Harrelson as the evil Harlan DeGroat was fantastic! He gave me such shudders with his unwavering cruelty that, without giving too much away, his end was well deserved. I came away feeling strangely empty though, totally unsure of how I should feel. On the one hand, justice had prevailed. On the other hand our poor hero was left with quite literally nothing and no one. The final shot described the feeling perfectly, showing clearly Russell sat in a dimly lit room, vacant and speechless. It was a haunting image to leave the cinema with. Overall, an emotionally harrowing film filled with a lot of violence (watch out if you don't deal well with a lot of blood) and a lot of beauty at times. I am glad that I did see the film in the end, despite it not normally being something I would watch. It was worth it just to see Bale do that. If you're a fan of his work then this is a must see.
I'm off to bed now as I'm tired and a little grumpy. I got the car back today and had a bit of a faff trying to park so I think I need to sleep before I have a fit.
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