Posted 1:40 PM by Paul
A Life in Films

The cinema up the road is under new management and ticket prices have been slashed to £2.99 ($5.50). No deals no discounts. That's the price. This means that we go to the pictures at least once a week. It's a multiplex and they have a good mix of mainstream studio product and some foreign language films as well as documentaries. Bowling for Columbine played for a couple of weeks (missed it) and Spellbound starts next week - hope to catch it. The local Indian population is catered for with the occasional Bollywood blockbuster.

Today we went to see Cheaper by the Dozen.

If you don't know the plot in a nutshell it goes like this:

Family of 12 kids, a dog and two adults are plunged into chaos and angst as they move home from semi-rural Illinois to Chicago because dad has landed his dream job coaching a major college football side which is also his alma mater. Further chaos ensues as mum goes on a promotional tour to publicise her first book - an account of bringing up 12 kids - and dad has to look after the entire brood.

It's not a bad film. The kids loved the bit where the creatively naughty sister soaks her eldest sister's boyfriend's boxer shorts in hamburger mince. This jape attracts the attentions of the family dog who bites the boyfriend's private parts trying to get at the meat. Alice and Emily were in hysterics. That alone was worth the admission fee. Family entertainment at its best.

There were problems of verisimilitude. We were expected to accept that Steve Martin's character was in his mid to late 40s and that his employers would allow him to coach the football team in his back yard, so that he could look after the kids. Even more absurdly we were expected to believe that the eldest son was being picked on at his new school and was unpopular. Snag is that the actor who plays the part also plays Superboy in Smallville. It would be difficult to imagine a more muscular more handsome example of American youth. The girls, and some of the boys would have been forming an orderly queue - that's line to any American's reading.

Inevitably dad puts family before his dream job and downsizes. The morality of the film was an insight into modern America.

The city sucks. People are either pretentious health freaks or agressive brand obsessed bread heads who judge you by the size and marque of your car and the swoosh on your trainers. The real America and the true American is to be found out there in the heartland in small towns. If you don't stray It's a Wonderful Life.

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