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Went to see Laws of Attraction today and enjoyed it immensely. Just what I needed ^_^.

Been feeling rather down lately -- stress about parents and the apartment, argued with the boy, I'm now worried that my rats have respiratory disease, and I'm worried about my friend... ({{{hugs anlee}}})

Haha, I just checked out the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, pretty much all of which bash the movie. Oh well. I think it's like romance novels. You either like the leads, and they carry you through the plot (although there is a point at which one gives up on the plot), or you don't like the characters, and nothing will work anyhow. I really liked the characters. I liked that they were older, I liked the fact that Daniel (Pierce Brosnan) falls for Audrey (Julianne Moore) right off the bat, pretty much. I really liked Audrey. I wasn't sure if I was going to at first, because she was completely neurotic and could have been extremely annoying, but luckily they didn't do something stupid in which Daniel the Smooth Lawyer constantly befuddles her in court. I hate movies in which they embarrass the female lead professionally after we have been told she is good.

And I liked what Julianne Moore did with the character -- there's a line in which Daniel asks Audrey how in the world could she be so insecure with her talent, and she just tosses off this line about being a pimply, gangly teenager whose mother was gorgeous. And it could have been dumb and cliched, except obviously Audrey has stopped angsting about it. She just flops around and goes to sleep, while Daniel kind of looks and smiles. And Julianne Moore plays it as though Audrey's never quite grown up. She has this sort of coltish, gangly walk when she's not in her prim lawyer skirt suits, she eats junk food obsessively, and she sort of talks like a teenager too.

Plus, Pierce Brosnan is cute ^_^. And did I mention how he falls for the neurotic, insecure girl right off the bat? Haha, wish fulfillment right there ;).

So I had fun. And while everyone is dissing it, I am hoping that it plus Intolerable Cruelty plus Down With Love is a trend to better romantic comedies. I'm pretty sick of Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock. And Hugh Grant when he is being shy and self-effacing (I like him much better in bastard mode).

I also saw a trailer of "Shall We Dance?" starring Richard Gere. Except it's a remake of this Japanese movie, and Richard Gere somehow does not quite strike me as the repressed salaryman type. Weeeeiiiiird.

Tan, Amy - The Opposite of Fate

It's strange, but I feel as though I can like Amy Tan's books more now that I've read her essays. One of my mains problems with her books are just the "Asian-American literature" part of them, so it's rather nice to know that Tan finds it rather strange to be stuck in the ethnic writers' ghetto and to be evaluated on how accurately she portrays an ethnic group, or improves race relations, etc. And I feel bad, because I generally do criticize her books on that level -- it's sometimes hard not to when there are so many similarities and differences between her experiences and her characters and my own.

I've read some of the essays before, most notably the one on language. The thing that struck me most was just how eventful her life has been and how painful it must have been -- she lost her father and brother in about a year, then her mother had them all move to Switzerland. Plus, of course, the depression her mother had and how that affected their relationship. I think she sounds like a person who would be interesting to talk to, but that I might not necessarily want to know.

Many of the essays are on her mother and her maternal grandmother, on her relationship with them, and through them, with China and Chinese culture. Other subjects include crazed squirrels (my personal favorite), being a rock star, going to Hollywood, etc.

( Book-related personal thoughts )