Ups and downs

Every time I have sat down to write during the past couple of weeks, something has interrupted. The first attempt began “we saw two movies.” A few days later I picked it up and changed that to “three movies.” And now, during the past month, we have seen four movies!

The first was “Little Girl Blue,” a documentary about the life of Janis Joplin that received a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I cannot even imagine how much work it was to compile all those film clips and conduct all those interviews. After all, she lived a short (27 years) and turbulent life that seldom seemed anything even close to what we might call happy. I wondered at the end whether it was a suicide or an accident. There was no note left, so it is hard to say for sure. Clearly she was a troubled human being but maybe there could have been some chance to learn to live with her self. In choosing whether to be angry with her for depriving us of her talent and to feel sorry for her for her unhappiness, I want to choose the latter.

The second movie, “The Big Short,” which received a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, was not one I expected to appreciate, knowing little as I do about high finance. True to expectations, I have to admit right up front that I did not fully understand what was going on, although I think the filmmaker did a very good job of having minor characters stepping out of their roles and speaking directly to the audience to explain some of the details of the financial goings on. But if asked I would still be unable to explain a credit default swap! Even without that level of understanding, what was clear was that during the early 2000s the top executives of major banks had figured out a seemingly clever, albeit ultimately immoral if not illegal, way to amass large amounts of money, until some clever colleagues beat them at their own game and brought the economy crashing down. Of course there was quite a bit of collateral damage, with millions of people losing most of their nest eggs, but those at the top seemed to remain largely unscathed.

Four characters were at the core of the story. Michael Barry (played by Christian Bale) was a sort of counterculture fund manager, a genius who listened to his own drummer, working long, irregular hours in shorts and t-shirts and flip-flops. Mark Baum (Steve Carell) was a Wall Streeter who had become disillusioned, even miserably angry, with pretty much everything while insisting that he still loved his job. Two lesser known actors played roles of a couple of young guys trying to break in to the financial world.

This is not a story to be taken lightly because although there was surely poetic license in the details, many people did lose significant portions of the sums they had worked hard to accumulate to allow them a comfortable retirement and perhaps leave some to their children and grandchildren.

The third movie was “Carol,” which received a 94% approval. Set in the early 1950s, Cate Blanchett plays a young wife and mother who is trying to juggle her seemingly charmed life as a well-off wife and mother. Her husband really does seem to love her, and in her way she loves him, but she is no longer able to deny something she probably knew even before they married, that she prefers being with women. Their situation is more complicated because they have a young daughter whom they both adore. Watching this film is a stark reminder of how much things have changed over the past fifty years, a relatively short period of time in the larger scheme of things. The movie makes no effort to sugar-coat the reality, and there is no grand happy ending here. We do not follow this couple and their young daughter into the future, but despite having two parents who truly did strive for her well-being, she has almost undoubtedly struggled.

One last movie was somewhat less well received, with an approval of only 73%: “Youth.” The story follows two retired men in their 70s, artists and long term friends who have moved into a beautiful resort in the Alps.  Fred (Michael Caine) is a classical composer while Mick (Harvey Keitel) is a filmmaker. Fred’s daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) comes to stay with her father following the sudden breakup of her engagement. Mick is surrounded by a bunch of young screenwriters working on what he plans will be the highlight of his long career. Jane Fonda has a small role as the actress who is to play the lead in that film. Our initial scan of A.O. Scott’s review in the New York Times seemed positive, but I went back this morning and read the entire review to find he did note weaknesses, and I do not disagree with what he had to say. Having said that, I think it is worth seeing just to observe Michael Caine’s performance. He is an actor who has literally been all over the map with various types of roles over many years, and he has taken on this one with great skill and sensitivity. He was also featured in a charming and thoughtful piece on CBS Sunday Morning this week.

This past weekend was somewhat bittersweet. Our friend Hilary, whose husband died nearly two months ago, has a son and daughter-in-law who live in Riverdale and just welcomed their first child into the world. The Brit Mila (ritual circumcision) was on Thursday morning. Since the couple has a small apartment, we invited Hilary and another one of her sons along with his wife to stay here with us for the weekend. It turned out that the three of them ate most of their meals at the young couple’s apartment, but it was nice for them to have a comfortable place to sleep, and nice for us to have time to chat over breakfast. We look forward to seeing more of Hilary over the coming months.

When visiting mourners, many traditional Jewish people will say “we should only see each other for simchas (happy occasions),” or “you should know no more suffering.” Rabbi Weiss has often pointed out that these are unreasonable wishes, because every life has its ups and downs. This past weekend was an especially stark example. Barry (may he rest in peace) was certainly looking forward to this new grandchild, so although there was an awareness of his absence, I believe little Caleb had the joyful party he deserved!

We did make it over to the New York Botanical Garden for the annual Holiday Train Show. Every year this exhibit is more and more extensive. This year they had a replica of the main building of the Botanical Garden that was quite a sight.

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that a couple of years ago we took our oldest grandchild to Disney World for five days at the happiest place in the world. Although we have had some delays and gotten a bit off schedule, we are getting back on track over the winter break with our second oldest, Eliana. After our Joshua trip, at the end of June, we decided not to go back there in the summer. We know it will be crowded there but this was a good time for her. Even in just these couple of years so many things have changed, with each visitor’s information stored in a wrist band. We were able to go on line many weeks ago and schedule some of the busiest rides, which should help us avoid trying to run (or, in my case, scooter) back and forth too many times.  

This warm weather makes it hard to think about winter holidays. Let us just stay healthy and enjoy the time off with families and friends.

Love,

Rebecca