Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I'm at about page 250.  Roxane Coss is one of the most accomplished sopranos living; Mr. Hosokawa is an opera mad Japanese industrialist who has been lured to an unnamed South American country where the government is eager to attract foreign investment by the enticement of a birthday party for him at which Roxane Coss will sing.  The party is held at the Vice President's home.

Roxane Coss sings and as she finishes her final aria the lights go out; terrorists swarm the premises, having entered the building through the HVAC system.  All of the guests, all of the kitchen workers and staff are held hostage.  The terrorists are surprised and confused when they discover that the President, who was scheduled to attend and was their quarry, is not there.

Two weeks later, a Swiss man named Messner enters the house.  He is a arbitration expert who just happened to be in town on vacation when the hostage event occurred, and has remained long after his vacation should have ended, and he should have returned home, to act as courier and communicator between the terrorists and the authorities.

He thinks to himself that he most likes to talk to General Benjamin; General Benjamin seems intelligent. He finds himself worrying about General Benjamin because the General has a terrible case of shingles that is red, angry, obviously painful and seems to be creeping across his face to reach his eye. Messner reminds himself that it is a mistake to become attached to anyone here, captors and hostages alike.  He knows that situations like this always end badly.

At the same time, Roxane Coss has discovered that one of Mr. Hosokawa's colleagues at his electronics firm is an excellent pianist, and would be happy to accompany her so that she could practice.  All she needs now is sheet music.  She approaches Messner with a list she wishes him to convey to her management in Italy.

The young priest in the house, Father Arguedas, overhears her request to Messner as it is translated by Gen, Mr. Hosokawa's translator.  He rushes to insert himself into the conversation and struggles to get Gen's attention.  His friend lives two miles away and is a music librarian.  Father Arguedas' friend Manuel can get them the Chopin, the Faure, the Bellini, Verdi and Puccini, that they want and more besides. He's so eager to help because he became a priest so that he could help others:  that is his reason for being.  But his great interest, his great comfort, his great passion is opera.  He, like Mr. Hosokawa, is a little in love with Roxanne Coss.  The beauty of her singing moves them so greatly, that love and deference occur to them naturally.

It was at this point that I burst into tears.

Christmas movies: Mr. Holmes/Woman in Gold/Star Wars/Spectre/Spotlight/She's Funny That Way/Brooklyn

I loved Mr. Holmes.  In it, Sherlock Holmes is elderly, retired, living in the country and keeping bees. He's having problems with his memory, and it bothers him.  He struggles to remember his last case. As he struggles to remember, snippets of memory swim into his consciousness, and as they do so, he grieves the past anew.  Milo Parker (who will remind you of Thomas Brodie-Sangster from Love Actually) plays the son of Holmes' housekeeper, who is, increasingly, the old man's friend.  The plot is clever, and the acting is wonderful.

I put off watching Woman in Gold, and put it off, and put it off some more because I think I thought it would be dreary.  As I imagined, Helen Mirren was wonderfully charismatic and charming.  As a creature of my time and place, I felt pained by the "underdog" story -- we all know you can't fight City Hall - but in this case, unassuming people did win.  It's lovely, sad and instructive all at the same time.

Star Wars was a lot of fun.  I think a pulse of electricity rolled through the audience as the first battle sequence began.  Daisy Ridley seemed like a revelation.  It will be so interesting to see how her career unfolds.

I really enjoyed Spectre, and especially loved the opening scenes in Mexico City.  I thought it spectacular and entirely engaging.  I thought that Christoph Waltz was miscast.  I think villains are somewhat boring but I feel that Waltz' acting reveals his intelligence and this interferes with projecting evil menace.  I had read reviews which complained that the plot was somewhat muddled, and I felt in retrospect that that may have been a fair criticism, but it didn't occur to me while I was watching it, and it didn't interfere in any way with my enjoyment.

Spotlight was very well written, well paced, well acted, and quite enjoyable.  It deals with a difficult subject that not everyone will want to view.  I think everyone in the cast wore khakis except for Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo's hair cut was awful, just awful, which I believe we are to understand is the kind of haircut that journalists sport.  I'm making fun, and I was surprised, but I appreciate the seriousness of the plot and the costumes.

She's Funny That Way is a film I saw on video; I'm not sure how I found it. It was directed by Peter Bogdanovich.  It's a "quirky" comedy that reminds me very much of a sixties comedy starring Barbra Streisand I saw on the TV the other day (For Pete's Sake, actually not from the sixties), which reminds me that this material is meant not just to be funny but to be funny in a comforting way.  It's a movie for movie buffs.  Obviously, no one thinks that this movie is a masterpiece but I realize that I admire it.  It's entertaining, escapist, and ends happily.  Imogen Poots plays the title character; at the end of the film she rues her debut play closing in a week, saying, "Long Island housewives just want to escape."  I think a lot of people just want to escape and this movie offers that.  Somehow this reminds me of Sullivan's Travels, and I want to say that Veronica Lake and Barbra Streisand were wonderful comic actresses.  I think Imogen Potts carried on the tradition in this film, and I think that's quite nice.

Brooklyn, starring Saoirse Ronan, was a film I felt I had to see because I had read the novel.  I'd found the novel very troubling.  I wasn't sure if Eilis was really happy with her choice.  Had she really chosen freely?  Or, had she allowed herself to be persuaded to do something that she wasn't really ready to make a commitment to do?  The movie suggests that she did choose what she really wanted and that she was happy with her choice.

The movie is so beautiful.  It's really true to the action of the book.  Saoirse  Ronan is so beautiful; the costumes are spectacular and so are the scenes shot in Ireland.   The movie is set in the '50s.  It's the story of an immigrant, and the pain of immigration - not wanting to leave, but being forced by a complete lack of opportunity.

I'd never read anything by Colm Toibin at that time; I found out about the novel because the Chicago Public Library chose it for their "One City, One Book" program.