Kristen Loves Design

So my Carl and I went out to dinner last Friday on a rare day when all the stars aligned (no kids for the night, getting out of work a little earlier than usual, beautiful weather, and some money in our pockets) to a beautiful independent restaurant in the next town. We’ve been there many times before (but not recently) and walking in on a Friday night around 5 without a reservation is impossible – but not this night! We were seated at a cozy table in the corner by a window (neither of us remember there was ever a table there before) and proceeded to spend all the money we had budgeted for the weekend and the following week in more or less one fell swoop. Oh was it worth it.

Images courtesy of the The Winds Cafe and Bakery.

I had the Clos Normand French Brut Hard Cider (simply amazing and hard to find anywhere) with Baked Ricotta (and it would seem most of the bread basket with salted butter) and my Carl had Seared Sea Scallops (but of course) with a drink special that was served in a martini glass and had Gin, simple syrup, and fresh squeezed lime juice. It tasted like a very fresh Margarita, but with Gin. This was a surprise considering that neither of us had been a big fan of Gin before. Well I tell you, we could have just sat there and drank a million more of these for the rest of the night! But, we had a movie to rush off to. What movie would we choose on this rarest of the rare beautiful early Spring evening?

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Why, Corialanus. Of course. Nerd Alert, I know. But really, what other movie would two English major rather see, right?! To be fair, it was playing at the independent movie theater in the same town – a theater we love with all our heart. We would have seen whatever was playing, and we have. Years ago, we would go to the movies the same night every week, no matter what was playing, which led us to see several fantastic movies that we wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

Image courtesy of The Guardian.

And so we, along with about 10 other people, watched the film adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies – Coriolanus, the story of a hero of Rome who is banished from the city, only to return with his sworn enemy to exert his revenge. Sounds good, right? Well I think we expected a movie with Coriolanus as the heart of the story of course, but with contemporary dialogue. But, no, they were all actually reciting Shakespeare! After we got over our initial surprise and screwed our English major heads back on (the drinks didn’t help in that regard), we both finally figured out the plot (since neither of us had ever read the play). I really applaud Ralph Fiennes (one of my favorites) for his direction (in his first film) and his performance along with Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave was truly award-winning.

I highly recommend the movie even if you haven’t read the play (we didn’t) and you aren’t sure you’ll understand the plot (we were confused for the first 10 minutes) because it is truly a tour-du-force and I predict it will be nominated for many more awards once the movie gains a wider release. Go see it! And clearly to avoid a Nerd Alert, I recommend you see it on a week night, when I’m sure there will be more than 10 other people in the theater. I’m sure.