Vanity Fair, Garden State Pretty Good

I finally saw some movies in the theater, Vanity Fair and Garden State.

I might have enjoyed Vanity Fair, the gorgeous period art house film, for what it was if I hadn't just finished reading Vanity Fair, the long-ass satirical novel. I understand why Mira Nair and Co whittled away the sprawling narrative and Thackary's snarky commentary to fit into a feature length movie. I'm not sure why they de-clawed Becky Sharpe. I guess they thought we wouldn't like her if she was morally ambiguous. Too bad. I did appreciate how Nair played up the Indian influences and didn't ignore the colonial and race issues that really were in Thackary's novel, even though he had the sexist and racist attitudes of his day. Reese Whitherspoon brought humanity to the Bitch in Election. I think we could have handled the bitch in Becky while understanding the social circumstances which oppressed her. Vanity Fair had good acting and great hair, but not enough venom. I wish it had been more like Barry Lyndon.

Garden State was good, even though Natalie Portman's make-up looked really bad in one scene.