Praise of Folly

If You Can't Stand Michael Kitchen...

...stay out of Enchanted April, the wonderful little 1992 movie for which Erasmus has an enormous soft spot. It's a sentimental story with an astonishingly good cast whom Erasmus has followed avidly over the past decade or so. Very few movies get as good a cast as Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Alfred Molina, Josie Lawrence (really!), Polly Walker (almost an Art Deco icon), Michael Kitchen, and Joan Plowright.

Erasmus is sure it's not for everyone, but if you have a soft spot for romance, Italy, and old-fashioned comedies, he assures you that you will enjoy Enchanted April.

(And no, Erasmus has not read Elizabeth von Arnim's novel, The Enchanted April on which it's based. He does have a copy around here somewhere, though...)

Ave.

Foyled Again, But No Curses

Erasmus somehow missed the first series of Foyle's War, but recently caught "Fifty Ships," the first episode of the second. To judge from the single episode, it's very nicely done, going to some lengths to capture the milieu of wartime Britain. To pick two examples, the rôle and resentments of the Auxiliary Fire Service were entertainingly worked in, as well as the phenomenon of "trekkers," people who fled urban centers at night for fear of bombing raids.

There were a few bits of language that sounded anachronistic (did they say "the death penalty" in the '40s?), but overall, the impression of faithfulness to the period was well-maintained. The plot was not bad at all, and the acting, particularly in the supporting rôles, was better than many BBC productions.

Special praise must go to Michael Kitchen as the eponymous Inspector Christopher Foyle, whose habitual subtlety and underplaying creates a quiet, solid heart to the show, a humanity that's never overwhelmed by the wartime drama.

Also, I'm indebted to the IMDb for informing me that Honeysuckle Weeks is indeed the born name of the actress playing Samantha Stewart. Miss Weeks has siblings named Perdita and Rollo, so her parents clearly did not feel themselves bound by onomastic convention.

Placet.

Erasmus is distracted

Sorry, folks.

(Or perhaps Erasmus should say "folk," given that there's likely one—at most—reader out there not hitting this page on a Google search for a summary of Moriæ Encomium. And, yes, Erasmus knows that "folk" is a collective noun. It's late, Erasmus is sleep-deprived.)

Sorry that posts have been, well, non-existent of late. Erasmus has non-web-based distractions aplenty these days. So, in passing, Erasmus will note:

• Spider-Man 2 is as good as everyone says. It's not going to surpass Casablanca, but unlike most costumed-hero flicks, it's a movie about people and their problems—one of whose problem is that he's a superhero. The character-driven story and the meditation on what one would have to give up to be a superhero are very good. The movie might have been a little shorter, but Raimi paces the slower parts well, so they're not longeurs, but quiet, realistic stretches. Erasmus's desiderata for a Sam Raimi movie were met. Bruce Campbell? Check. The Classic? Check. At least one visually spectacular dynamic detail shot? Check. (Two words: shards, eye.) The fact that they're contained in what's plausibly been described as the best superhero movie ever? Gravy. Erasmus didn't quite get why the guy with the metal exoskeleton was unaffected by powerful magnetic fields, but the science in the movie was ridiculous, though Alfred Molina's excellent, tragic performance was a welcome distraction. Erasmus has found some of the most interesting controversy on the film's central question: Being Spider-Man vs. Being Peter Parker around the Catholic blog world, where many of the more interesting bloggists are priests who saw the ending as a cop-out, that indeed, maintain heroic virtue requires giving up the attachments most take for granted. Erasmus isn't quite prepared to knock the ending that far, as he read Mary Jane's problem as simply that of the wife (or husband, nowadays) of a policeman or fireman or soldier. One must live with the fear that one's spouse won't return from his dangerous job...
• Erasmus has been meaning to push the novels of James Swain, particularly his terrific Sucker Bet, and the release of his new novel (still on Erasmus's nightstand, alas), Loaded Dice, gives him an excuse to do so. Swain is an expert on gambling, as his his series protagonist, Tony Valentine, a retired Atlantic City cop who works as a consultant helping casinos identify and catch cheats. Swain has gotten better novel after novel, a pleasure to see, and Sucker Bet is worth mentioning in the same breath with many of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen's books. (In what Dave Barry once referred to as the Bunch of South Florida Lunatics genre.) Check Swain out: they're good reads, in addition to the fascinating gambling and card-cheat trivia you pick up. Erasmus believes you'll be glad you did.
• Erasmus was put onto the dreadfully-titled Fox show Tru Calling by a friend recently. While far from the best show Erasmus has ever seen, it's worth checking into if your summer viewing doldrums could use a little X-Files cum Quantum Leap cum Early Edition pastiche.

More when life permits...