Movie Monday

I'm not sure if I'm going to designate Mondays, Movie Mondays as the weekends seems to be the time when I watch movies and I thought Monday would be a good day to talk about them.

But, truthfully, I'm not working right now, so I'm posting more often that I would if I were working.

But, we'll see.

This week, at least, it's Movie Monday.

I watched two movies over the weekend. The Last King of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy (and an almost unrecognizable Gillan Anderson of X-Files fame) and Notes on a Scandal starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett and Bill Nighy (who is fast becoming one of my favorite actors.)

Both movies were what I would describe as psychological thrillers in that Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal, and McAvoy in The Last King of Scotland, are two naive, vulnearble and rather flawed individuals who find themselves under the sway of someone who is not only more powerful in the sense of being older than they are, but are also in positions of authority. In Dench's case, her having taught for years at the school where Blanchett is a novice teacher, and in the case of Whitaker, his being the president of Uganda and McAvoy a young Scottish doctor who comes to Uganda to, as he says, "make a difference."

McAvoy and Blanchett in the beginnings of their relationships with Whitaker and Dench, respectively, are drawn, like moths to the flame, to their more powerful, and ultimately, dangerous mentors. Soon, however, both relationships---as much through the fault of both McAvoy and Blanchett---turn poisonous and, even in McAvoy's case, deadly.

I would recoomend both movies as excellent studies for not only how to go about writing flawed characters but for also creating that dizzying pas de deux of attraction and repulsion between two people that can be so fascinating to read in a novel. Or, in this case, to see in a movie.

I should mention that both books are based on novels and that may account for their psychological richness. Also, Whitaker, McAvoy, Dench and Blanchett are incredible actors. It was like dining on a gourmet meal watching both of these movies with these particular actors.

One interesting thing about Dench and Blanchett is that both women have played Elizabeth I. Dench in Shakespeare in Love and Blanchett in Elizabeth, which I believe she's filmed a sequel to.

Now, if only someone would come up with a movie that would star Dench, Blanchett and Helen Mirren, who recently played both Elizabeth I on HBO and the Queen of England in The Queen.

Now, that would be something to see!