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1. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society Movie - this is an original Netflix film, with a British cast, filmed in Guernsey. Stars Lily James, Matthew Goode, the woman who played the Prime Minister on Doctor Who and Matthew Crowley's mother, Michiel Huisman, and others. Most of which I've seen before but can't place.
I did not read the book. My mother did but she can't remember it.
I enjoyed it, but it drags in the middle and for the most part goes the predictable route. It's a post-WWII romance, about a young female writer in London, circa 1946, who receives a letter from a fan of her last book, Izzy Bittzewhite Goes to War. The fan is a young pig farmer living on Guernsey, an island in the Channel Islands, located in the English Channel between Britain and France. In WWII, the Germans occupied the islands and turned them into a fortress, stringing landmines and barbed wire along the beaches and building bunkers with the use of slave labor. He and his comrades formed a book club as a cover for eating a roast pig one night, after the Germans allegedly confiscated all the farm stock on the island, living the citizens with nothing to eat but potatoes.
The writer visits the island with the intent of writing about the society, but they don't want that, because they are hiding a secret. Curious, the writer, Juliette Ashton, decides to investigate.
There's a lot of references to English Classics, and the atrocities committed during WWII by both the Germans and the people on the islands. And the story has a nice twist showing how all people are capable of wonderful and horrible things often at the same time, and it's best not to generalize.
That said, it drug a bit in the middle and my attention wandered. Also, I found the romance very paint-by-numbers and not all that realistic. Some characters came across as sort of stock or plastic, while others were better developed. I think I was a bit disappointed in it -- because folks on Facebook were raving about it as the BEST THING EVER and how they absolutely loved it. It was enjoyable, I cried at the end of it, but...I also felt like I'd seen it before. I told that to my mother who said, well, most of these WWII stories tend to be alike.
It's a good movie to see on a rainy day, which today is.
2. I recommended Black Mirror to my uncle who loves horror stories and has churned his way through Castle Rock, Deadwood, Game of Thrones, etc. So he tells me that the first episode is brilliant and has a great premise, but the final one, The Prime Minister and The Pig has continued to haunt him, and was so revolting he could not stop thinking about it.
Uncle: I just saw the Prime Minister and the Pig -- and, when you see it, tell me what you think about it. It's days later, and I'm still revolted. I can't stop thinking about it.
Me: Uhm, I'm not entirely sure I want to see something that is revolting. I don't watch the news.
(But alas I'm curious, so I look it up. Thinking..okay, does the Prime Minister turn into a pig, is he fed to the pig, does he turn someone else into the pig. Does he feed people to the pig? I've seen a lot of horror anthologies in my life time.
None of the above.
( Spoilers )
Oddly this doesn't bother me. At all. But it amuses me greatly that my uncle had no issues with Deadwood, where they feed people to the pigs (that's why my mother stopped watching it), but this bugs him?
I tell my mother the story. (It's her brother-in-law by marriage, or her sister's hubby). She bursts out laughing.
Actually it sounds like a rather brilliant satire on our society. Which is what I told him. That it reminded me of Jonathan Swift.
I did not read the book. My mother did but she can't remember it.
I enjoyed it, but it drags in the middle and for the most part goes the predictable route. It's a post-WWII romance, about a young female writer in London, circa 1946, who receives a letter from a fan of her last book, Izzy Bittzewhite Goes to War. The fan is a young pig farmer living on Guernsey, an island in the Channel Islands, located in the English Channel between Britain and France. In WWII, the Germans occupied the islands and turned them into a fortress, stringing landmines and barbed wire along the beaches and building bunkers with the use of slave labor. He and his comrades formed a book club as a cover for eating a roast pig one night, after the Germans allegedly confiscated all the farm stock on the island, living the citizens with nothing to eat but potatoes.
The writer visits the island with the intent of writing about the society, but they don't want that, because they are hiding a secret. Curious, the writer, Juliette Ashton, decides to investigate.
There's a lot of references to English Classics, and the atrocities committed during WWII by both the Germans and the people on the islands. And the story has a nice twist showing how all people are capable of wonderful and horrible things often at the same time, and it's best not to generalize.
That said, it drug a bit in the middle and my attention wandered. Also, I found the romance very paint-by-numbers and not all that realistic. Some characters came across as sort of stock or plastic, while others were better developed. I think I was a bit disappointed in it -- because folks on Facebook were raving about it as the BEST THING EVER and how they absolutely loved it. It was enjoyable, I cried at the end of it, but...I also felt like I'd seen it before. I told that to my mother who said, well, most of these WWII stories tend to be alike.
It's a good movie to see on a rainy day, which today is.
2. I recommended Black Mirror to my uncle who loves horror stories and has churned his way through Castle Rock, Deadwood, Game of Thrones, etc. So he tells me that the first episode is brilliant and has a great premise, but the final one, The Prime Minister and The Pig has continued to haunt him, and was so revolting he could not stop thinking about it.
Uncle: I just saw the Prime Minister and the Pig -- and, when you see it, tell me what you think about it. It's days later, and I'm still revolted. I can't stop thinking about it.
Me: Uhm, I'm not entirely sure I want to see something that is revolting. I don't watch the news.
(But alas I'm curious, so I look it up. Thinking..okay, does the Prime Minister turn into a pig, is he fed to the pig, does he turn someone else into the pig. Does he feed people to the pig? I've seen a lot of horror anthologies in my life time.
None of the above.
( Spoilers )
Oddly this doesn't bother me. At all. But it amuses me greatly that my uncle had no issues with Deadwood, where they feed people to the pigs (that's why my mother stopped watching it), but this bugs him?
I tell my mother the story. (It's her brother-in-law by marriage, or her sister's hubby). She bursts out laughing.
Actually it sounds like a rather brilliant satire on our society. Which is what I told him. That it reminded me of Jonathan Swift.