It's Complicated

After an hour or thereabouts visiting an inmate of Long Bay prison I re-joined Spike (reading in the van parked adjacent to the jail’s massive sandstone walls) then we drove to La Perouse where we enjoyed coffee / chai and cakes on the deck of Pete’s Boatyard Café (an element in several of my poems a few years back).  We wandered around the point, which is not as romantic as it sounds.  Spike had to work hard pushing me up the hill.  We sat at (Spike on) a bench at the top of the hill for a while then Spike suggested we go to the movies to see It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and a sadly miss-cast Steve Martin doing … anything but funny.  

It’s not the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, not by a very long way.  I doubt that it would have seen the light of day if Ms Streep’s name had not been linked to it.  She, of course, is completely engaging but the truth is that she would be compelling viewing even if she was reading the phone directory.  But almost everyone in the (small) audience laughed at some point.  Me too. More than once.  I did giggle at the first scene of Meryl Streep doing whacked on dope and the family breakfast scene the morning after the lunch time assignation.  Two truly funny scenes aren't really enough to hold tegether an entire movie though.  It was a bit of a missed opportunity (especially with the three leads).  I guess they meant well and you know when you weigh movies in the balance ... let's try It's Complicated and Transformers: Rise Of The Fallen ... there really isn't much to confuse you, is there?  Meryl Streep at 2/3rds of capacity ANY day of the week before any amount of Michael let's blow something up Bay.

 

After the movie we dined in the Bavarian Bar Café at Fox Studios.  It’s hard to believe we were there at all except it’s the closest cinema to La Perouse.  Even harder to believe was our choice of restaurant.  Neither Spike nor I eat meat.  We don’t drink beer.   So … Bavarian Bar Café?  I chose fish and chips.  Spike chose prawn salad and a glass of rose wine.  Go figure.