Day 156: Into the Night

Ed (Jeff Goldblum) can’t sleep and after he catches his wife cheating on him, he can’t be in the house either. He heads off to the airport in the middle of the night and his dreary life is changed forever. Diane (Michelle Pfieffer) comes crashing onto the hood of his car and the two try to escape the men chasing her.

According to the BBC, we spend half our waking hours daydreaming. I thought it was more than that but perhaps the rest of you have interesting jobs and whatnot so you don’t have to be daydreaming quite so much. Anyway, a very common feature of my daydreams is a spontaneous adventure. Along the same lines of the film, I’d love for a stranger to come into my life and for us to have to do something exciting and perhaps even a bit dangerous. Maybe this opportunity has shown itself before but I missed it. I want an adventure.

The film was alright but nothing special. I wouldn’t watch it again but that’s not to say I didn’t like it. I did laugh a couple of times and some scenes were good. On the whole I'd say you're not missing anything if you never watch this film.

6/10

Day 14: Labyrinth

Stroppy teenager Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) doesn’t want to look after her screaming baby brother so she wishes the Goblin King (David Bowie) would come and take him away.

I’ve never watched David Bowie sing before but does he always look massively awkward? When he was singing the Magic Dance song he looked so uncomfortable. Jennifer Connelly was great. I’m not sure if I usually like her but she was good in this role.

The imagination is such an important thing and I love that it was given significance in the film. People discount imagination so often, telling you to “be realistic” but I think it’s crucial to understanding things. In order to find the courage to do things you’ve got to dream about doing them and all the things that could happen as a result. Sarah wanted her brother to be gone and dreamed of goblins taking him away, thinking she’d get what she wanted as a result but she didn’t. It helped her realise what is important and not to take things for granted. If you do then you miss out on so much.

I was a little confused as to why the Goblin King was in love with Sarah but I think it makes sense now. Perhaps it was her determination to make it through the labyrinth despite all the terrible things that happened to her. For someone so young she was so strong and never gave up. I think it’s really amazing when people do that. They have the worst time and can work through it and come out the other side. Those are the best people, I usually find. And the ones to take notes from. Sarah always saw the best in the dwarf even when she knew he was trying to get rid of her. She was prepared to give him a second chance because they were friends. I don’t think I’m that good with giving people second chances, in fact if someone does something that I think is wrong I usually just strike them out of my life. Which sounds a bit dramatic but is less so in reality. Humans aren’t perfect things so I should understand that people mess up from time to time but I am so unforgiving that I find it difficult to know that when it’s happening. I liked that she forgave him though since he was clearly deserving of it.

Thoroughly enjoyed the film. Will have to watch it again though as I was a bit distracted during it today. All the puppets were brilliant and the songs were great too.

8/10