Movie & Concert

Last Sunday my husband Andrew and I went to a matinee showing of the recently released movie, “The Bookshop” starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy, and Patricia Clarkson. I’m always a sucker for any movie with ‘Book’ in the title (unless it’s about Bookies/Bookmakers, which is a whole other thing). The movie is based on the novel by Penelope Fitzgerald (which I’ve purchased, but haven’t yet read). It reminded me a little of the book/movie, “Chocolat” (based on the novel by Joanne Harris) in that the mayor didn’t exactly welcome Vianne’s new chocolate shop with open arms (though the fact that she opened during Lent probably didn’t help matters).

 

In “The Bookshop” it’s not the mayor that isn’t happy, but rather the town’s wealthy matriarch (for lack of a better word), Violet Gamart (Patricia Clarkson does an excellent British accent). Mrs. Gamart, it seems, would rather the building the bookshop occupies be used instead for an arts center. It’s not entirely clear why the arts centre has to absolutely be in that building when there are several other dwellings available for rent/sale. One can only assume that Ms. Gamart doesn’t like the bookshop’s proprietor, Ms. Florence Green and just wants to make her life difficult. One also wonders whether Gamart would be happy if Ms. Green did move her bookshop to a different location, or whether Gamart would find another bone to pick with her. Perhaps these questions are better answered in the book, as quite a few of the movie reviews say the cinematic adaptation only skims the surface of the novel.

Though the story isn’t the most cheerful of tales and doesn’t really have a very happy ending, it’s worth seeing just for the casting of Bill Nighy as the town’s curmudgeon and recluse who orders books (through the mail) from the bookshop and then writes witty replies expressing his feelings for the books Ms. Green has selected for him (he’s particularly a fan of Ray Bradbury & the newly published Lolita). I also enjoyed the scene where Florence visits him in his cold, drafty castle (at least that’s what I’d call a house of that scale and age) for tea, cakes, and a little bit of town gossip.

If you’re a fan of books/reading or an Anglophile, you should appreciate this movie.

Last week my husband Andrew and I had the privilege of attending the second concert this year being given by one of our favorite folk artists, Lucy Wainwright Roche. We had previously seen her back in February at a Six String concert where she opened for folk artist, Lucy Kaplansky. This time Ms. Wainwright Roche was going solo where she played for the pizza-loving audience at Natalie’s Coal Fired Pizza in nearby Worthington. Besides loving the music and witty banter between songs (most of the stories which we heard at her February performance), it reminded me somewhat of the jazz/blues concerts I sometimes attended at the Rathskeller in my student days at Kent State University. It was also nice going out on a work night and still getting home earlier enough that I didn’t feel sleep deprived the next day.