Happiness is knowing who you really are, what you really want to do and being committed to doing it

A little late in posting about the weekend movie treats, so here’s the scoop – 3 stories of the rollercoaster of life, its ups and downs en route to finding your self , your place in the world and attempting to make it a better one.

 

Valkyerie
This was a wooden performance from Cruise – why doesn’t he take more risks and refine the talent shown in Magnolia and Eyes Wide Shut? The supporting “best of British” actors are the better ones here  – look for  the always good Bill Nighy as the procrastinating General Olbricht and equally so Tom Wilkinson as General Fromm;  add to that Kevin McNally, Eddie Izzard, Tom Hollander, Terence Stamp, Kenneth Brannagh as the key players in the plot to assassinate Hitler and you have a movie worth a watch
  ashramblings verdict: run of the mill thriller (3*)
The House Bunny
Being dependent upon borrowing movies from other volunteers one ends up watching things one never would have otherwise watched . Sometimes these can be delightful new discoveries, but often they are not.  This was one of the nots! A silly romp around a US university sorority house – never did get this concept, and probably never will. A complete waste of space movie
  ashramblings verdict:  leave it in the wastebin (0*)
 The Pursuit of Happyness
The misspelling  of Happiness comes from the day care where Chris leaves son Christopher in the hands of a Chinese nanny as he rushes back and forth across SF struggling to make a living from selling portable bone density scanners to hospitals. A chance encounter leads him to the world of stock brokers and so down to his last few dollars he undertakes a competitive unpaid 6 months internship. As his luck drains anyway father and son, loose their car, home, bank account and finally end up in a church run overnight rest stop for the homeless. With humour deftly added via scenes where the final scanners are stolen by the cities hippies and down and outs and recovered, repaired and  resold by Chris as he struggles to keep body and soul, father and son together, and financially solvent. The film portrays a good role model for black american youth. I actually enjoyed Will Smith’s performance through which one truly feels the emotional rollercoaster of Chris’s life fuelled by a fierce determination to maintain his relationship with his son and to succeed in order to do that. Naturally the film has a Hollywood ending but then it is based on the true story of  Christopher Gardner who eventually set up Gardner Rich & Co
  ashramblings verdict: (3*) adequately told inspirational story

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Girls of Riyadh

by

Rajaa Alsanea

Sex in the City Saudi style is the hype surrounding this book which takes the form of email supposedly sent by a Saudi woman to chat rooms on the internet in which she discusses her circle of friends,their love affairs, marriages and divorces à la Carrie Bradshaw.
A bit of a chick  lit read, but many of the interactions with boys and men we will all relate to – the ups and downs of love, of trying to find “the one” and settling for something else. I liked Un Nuwayyir’s analysis of men and women – too long to reproduce here  - she classifies men and women on the basis of strength of personality (the strong, the weak), self confidence (the secure, the insecure) , religious type(extremely, moderate, wild) etc and I suspect we can all place our lovers somewhere on that grid.
The novel paints a dire picture of Saudi men as weak willed, overwhelmingly bound by tradition and family, not devoid of love but willing to sacrifice it rather than break with traditional principles – saying you want a love match and being able to stand up to be counted when you find it and it is deemed “unsuitable” are quite different matters. At least none of her characters ended up with quite the same deadly fate as has found some men and women in real life even in my home country when they have sought to break with their cultural tradition and marry outside it for love.
For a westerner like me  definitely some moments of insight into what life must be like there: just how important  the mobile phone is as the only way to talk to a member of the opposite sex without anyone else being present, whilst the very same mobile phone records are scanned by prospective partners for traces of a “previous”; how everyone, men and women, change aboard planes just prior to landing back into traditional garb; where the girls every word, every action is watched and scrutinised by mothers on the look out for prospective spouses for their beloved sons; where marriage suitability is not just a question of belonging to a particular religious faction but also about the tribal discrimination between people’s from different parts of the country .
ashramblings verdict: (3*) It’s not a great book by any means, but it is one the banning of which in its homeland sets it up as a catalyst for discussion.

The Fencing Master by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

The Fencing Master
by
Arturo Pérez-Reverte
1988, The Harvill Press
Translated from the original Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa

Don Jaime Astarloa is of the old school – a 51 year old, down to earth honest teacher of the art of fencing, not the sport into which fencing is transforming upon the rise of the duelling fireman and the demise of the settling of honour scores by the  sabre. It in 1868 and Madrid is rife with political intrigue, talk of coups and revolution. But these topic hold little interest for Don Jaime even though he regularly meets with his other friends at the aptly name cafe Progreso to exchange the gossip of the day over coffee. But his mind is always on his fencing, on writing his definitive book on the subject and on the elusive perfect sword thrust. That is until he finds himself embroiled in a set of viscous murders, an unwitting pawn in a political game.
To begin with I wondered if my lack of knowledge about fencing was going to be a problem in reading and understanding the main character of the book and the whole plot. It is not a sport I am familiar with, I have never seen a fencing match, I know nobody who fences. The terminology was very foreign  - in seconde, in tierce, in quart, prime, parry, thrust, lunge etc but they  are gently introduced and one soon finds oneself swept along by the storyline. From her entrance it is  clear that Dona Adela de Otero is no ordinary Madrid lady and exactly how she will bring death and destruction to Don Jaime’s life we can but wonder, but that she has the money, the looks and the skills to do it we are left in no doubt.  
Character wise Dona Adela intrigues, Don Jaime is viewed with genuine warmth as the slightly down and heal, seen financially better days, but still comfortable in his own skin ‘Maestro’, and the reader is quietly pleased he has found good camaraderie with his buddies at the Cafe Progreso.  The plot structure is somewhat predictable, but by the time I got to the  denouement I had completely forgotten about the introductory italicised section prior to the first chapter and had to go back and reread it. That only served to make it all the most mysterious and thrilling a read.
Pérez-Reverte is a writer of some 12 books, mainly historical thrillers of which this was his first novel. Its the first of his I have read and I am sure to read more.

 ashramblings verdict: (3*) Recommended. A satisfying, smooth thriller, competently crafted and executed.