Watched Golden Bowl, and this is one flick where I think you almost need the longwinded description to know what the flick is about.

Golden Bowl DVD THE GOLDEN BOWL is Merchant-Ivory's adaptation of the Henry James novel of romantic torment--the novel James named as his favorite. The title refers to a beautiful crystal bowl encrusted with gold which conceals a single imperceptible flaw--a small crack. The bowl is a simple effective metaphor for the seeming perfection of the relationships in the film. Some characters in THE GOLDEN BOWL see the hidden flaw and keep their knowledge of its worthlessness to themselves. Others do not see the flaw and live their lives feeling that they should be happy not understanding the root of their unease. THE GOLDEN BOWL features excellent performances particularly from Nick Nolte as the American billionaire Adam Verver and Kate Beckinsale as Maggie his devoted daughter. Maggie marries an Italian prince (Jeremy Northam) who has a secret past with her best friend (Uma Thurman). The film includes the lavishly precise production design expected of Merchant-Ivory works. But the dark emotional complexity of the source novel combined with the filmmakers's aesthetically bold inclusion of archival footage from early 20th Century urban America give the film an edge--a palpable sense of the underlying dread of industrialization in the New World.

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Without A Trace

I liked last nights episode, in part because they acknowledged that they guy may have slipped out on his life -- with reason, and that they couldn't force a man to be the husband his wife wanted him to be, and the businessman his father-in-law wanted him to be. The ending was beautiful in that they got a resolution to the case that satisfied the loved ones, and yet they were convinced there may well have been a happy ending in there somewhere.

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Robbery Homicide Division

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I've been watching shows I taped in the early weeks of the season while I was trying to decide what to watch on what nights -- right now I still have Still Standing on CBS showing during Evewood, but Everwood (featuring Deep End of the Ocean's Treat Williams) is a full hour and starts first, so I'm watching Everwood off the air, and taping Still Standing.

Watched two eps of Still Standing (with A Knight's Tale's Mark Addy) today and can understand why the show has been picked up for a full 22 epsidoes. It is a fun comedy about parents who are such kids that it is hard to believe they are parents, and yet they are doing a decent job of it. A well written fun show -- with characters that seem to have actually been thought out!

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American Dreams is full of heartache, and yet it is a joy to watch. Somehow taking a moment out to remember the problems of the 60s -- a boy not asking you out, a girl going to a different college than her boyfriend, a family trying to figure out how to have a meal without killing one another.

The simple joys and pains of life come alive each week -- and make me glad I tune in.

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