At the movies.

It's been a banner weekend at the movies around these parts. With my aunt and cousin and son, I saw Source Code, on the one hand one of those generally well-made thrillers with a sci fi edge, on the other hand one of those movies where you're hitting your forehead with the heel of your hand, because they're all, "We don't have time for these questions, soldier! Keep your focus on the mission! We're wasting precious time!" and the soldier is all, "But can't I talk to my dad? But where am I?" And you know that, 30 minutes in, there's going to be a big exposition-y chunk, because they're going to have to explain things sometime. So why not just get that explaining out of the way, already? But that Jake Gyllenhaal, he's a cutie. And that's enough explanation for everyone, at least most of the time.

Then today, on the spur of the moment, my daughter and I saw Red Riding Hood, a fantastic hot mess of a movie, much in the vein of the first Twilight, and what do you know? The wolf is no wolf. No, the wolf is a WEREwolf. Of course. Amanda Seyfried looked very fetching in her cloak. Julie Christie was beautiful and a little scary as the grandmother.

And tonight, the historian and I saw Hanna, which I may or may not have wheedled him into. It was definitely more on the action side of the movie-going spectrum than he usually likes. (Last weekend we saw Win-Win, which I highly recommend for the non-action side of the movie-going spectrum. It was great.) But I kind of adored Hanna. I love that actress Saoirse Ronan, and she is beautiful and compelling beyond all reason in this movie.

The first part of Hanna is set somewhere in the north, sub-Arctic. The credits, which, inexplicably, we were the only viewers to stick around for, said that part of the film was shot in Finland. These sequences were exquisite. Beautiful. There's a fairy tale valence to the whole thing that really gets set up perfectly (not quite like the wacked out Red Riding Hood, which has a medieval slash Renaissance Faire slash Dungeons & Dragons vibe), with its house in the forest of tall, tall trees, and the fierce brilliant cold, and the snow sometimes drifting beautifully, lazily down.

"Standby Snow," is the credit one craftsman gets. Maybe it's not a coincidence that there was a fair amount of that going on in our neighborhood last night and this morning:

p.s. someday, someone should cut that grass. but it has to stop snowing first.