Slow

Liz and I went to see Roads to Koktobel last night. Don't bother going to see this film. It's the single most boring film I've ever had the displeasure to watch. Shame really because I had high hopes for it, it sounded like it would be very interesting, yet it didn't go anywhere. Here's the plot:

Boy and father get on a freight train. They get taken off the train by a rail inspector. They sleep in a shed for the night, then head off towards the town the next day. They offer to fix some bloke's roof. He takes the father's passport. They spend the next two days fixing the roof. On the morning of the third day the father wants more vodka after a heavy drinking session (it's implied that he is alcoholic) and the man has none left for them to drink. He goes to get money to give him, but there is none. He accuses the father of stealing the money and leads him, and the boy, out of the house at gun-point. The father tries to stop him and ends up being shot. They scarper into some woods. That night they reach a female doctor's house, she takes them in and fixes the wound. The father and her end up shagging. The kid runs off. The kid winds up in Koktobel, strangling a seagull. The father finds him. THE END.

The entire film ought to have lasted about half an hour, yet they stretched it out over 2 hours. On the way out I heard a woman say to her husband "that was the most tedious film I've ever seen". I couldn't agree more. It wasn't the fact that the story was slow. It wasn't the lack of dialogue. It was the fact that they took boring shots of the scenery and showed them for up to three minutes at a time. Looking at the same hill for 3 minutes is not much fun. I understand that the director wanted to make the point that this was a long journey, but seriously ... my imagination can fill the blanks. I know it's a long journey, but I don't need to see every inch of the landscape to understand this.

Suffice to say that Liz and I were somewhat disappointed. Especially after watching A Long Engagement which was utterly splendid. Ah well, butter luck next time.

Swimming

In other news, Liz and I went swimming on Monday evening. This is the first real exercise I've done since I finished university and my god I ached yesterday as a result. I'm still aching today too. Still, it's good to know that I've done some work, the aching is a reminder of this fact.