Saturday, August 07, 2004

Little Black Book a Surprising Pleasure

Earlier today I caught "Little Black Book" starring Brittany Murphy (of "Clueless" fame) and co-starring (or also featuring) Holly Hunter (love the accent), Kathy Bates (love the attitude), Ron Livingston (of "Office Space" fame) and Stephen Tobolowsky (see below, after the review).

Surprisingly, I really liked this movie. Normally I find Brittany Murphy's characters to be a bit vapid and hollow. Perhaps that's a generalization from her roles in "Clueless," "Just Married," and assorted others. But in "Little Black Book" she plays a very likeable, honest (even though she engages in many duplicitous tactics), rather engaging character. The story, as apparent from the previews is pretty straight-forward. She starts poking through her boyfriend's palm after learning of a previous girlfriend of his that he hadn't mentioned. Thus Pandora's Box is opened and the girlfriend's trusting demeanor is cast aside in face of new doubts. I'm not going to say much more since I don't want to give anything away. However, I will say that I found the resolution to her pryings to be very unanticipated and very compelling, all the more so since I wasn't planning on liking Brittany Murphy or her role in this movie. For some reason, the movie really struck a chord with me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you like romantic comedies and can stand Brittany Murphy, I highly recommend you take in this flick.

Alan's Movie Rating: DVD-Worthy

What Hartford Has to Offer Movie Stars

In my cruisings on IMDB (The Internet Movie Database - an excellent online, cross-referenced compendium of movie and movie-related information), under the Trivia heading for Stephen Tobolowsky I found this item:
was almost murdered twice in one week in Hartford, Connecticut by different people. Tobolowsky admits "that's unusual(!)"
Right, because almost getting murdered once a week is par for the course. Barring some near-misses on the highway or local roads, I can't say I'm completely shocked. More than anything, I find this factoid to be rather telling about the city in which I live. New England's Rising Star(TM) my ass.