STILL ALICE * ENTOURAGE * CAKE

I think it's time for a new look for my blog - I love those clean white wide-bordered blogs I've been seeing. I don't want to give up my red heart turning though, and I've grown attached to my extra long but still anonymous bio, although it annoys me a lot.  So here I am, like in most of the other parts of my life - at inaction. Then you see a movie like Still Alice, and say well, that's not me really - I mean the whole thing accelerated in less than 120 minutes, right? Now I've read the book, and can't help but think every time I forget something or can't find a word, or have to do something a little more slowly than in the past so that I get it right the first time, that Alice at the beginning of the book could be me. 
Except there's the Attractor Factor which means I'm only going to put out there that my slips are normal in this overloaded world, and I will continue to blithely go about my business. Which in this case is reviewing a book and a couple of movies! 

Still Alice by Lisa Genova - Read it and be a little frightened unless you're under 40. It's an amazingly intelligent story - the author conversation at the end of the book bears that out when she explains that she wanted to write from the point of view of the person with Alzheimer's. It's a good book about a tough and real subject. The movie follows the book beautifully, so if you aren't inclined for more of the same, the movie will show you all there is to know about Alice's story.

Entourage - I should have listened to the Tribune's two stars. As a TV show, the boys and their stories were fun to follow in half hour doses. As a movie, the story wasn't so great, and I felt like everyone was resting on their HBO laurels rather than bringing it strong one more time. I was falling asleep in this one - it can wait. For free when it hits TV.

Cake - I'm still thinking about this slow moving but engaging story about a woman with chronic pain getting through her days. Jennifer Aniston plays the woman, and her story unfolds by layers as she interacts with her housekeeper, her support group, her ex-husband and a guy who inspires her curiosity (you'll see why when you watch). It's a drama that pulls you along somehow and I liked it.