What's John watching?

Girl with a Pearl Earring: Well, we decided to rent this one, despite a negative secondhand review from the helpful Rogers Video employee: apparently, his female friend, a huge Colin Firth and Lost in Translation fan, was not impressed. Love Actually, however, was highly recommended once I mentioned that my mum - the third member of this evening's audience - was also a big Firth fan. (We'd already seen it, but something in my wife's "Oh, you should've picked that one up too" tells me that I'll be seeing it again shortly.)

I'm guessing the female reviewer above did not appreciate the pace of this movie. It was slow - no question - but it was also deliberate; each scene built on the last. What also grabbed me was the use of colour: the banquet was so fiery, with oranges and reds; the walk by the water the next day... so yellow. The lighting too... I remember a market scene: it was getting dark and Griet's (Scarlett Johanssen) face was grainy; it looked like she'd been shot with a camcorder.

Both colour and lighting were used to great effect. Mum summed it up best: it's like a series of paintings. Too true. It was a beautiful film. ¶ 10:26:00 p.m.