State Of Play & A Discovery

We went for a movie this Friday - State of Play. It was a long time since we watched one in theater. The promos really created that excitement in me that you have for so wanting to watch a movie. Every time after watching the promos - I used to tell Poonam that we will watch this one in theater. Often, when you have such high expectations from the movie - the movie fails to satisfy them. Luckily, State of Play is not one of them.

It is an impeccable movie with a complex story line, gripping direction and unexpected twists. All the characters are well-defined and all of them have a hint of grey - just like all of us in real life. And of course the stellar cast of Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams(The Notebook fame), Helen Mirren(The Queen fame). I was just looking up the actors' names on the IMDB.com to make sure I don't mis-spell them and I learned that movie is directed by Kevin Macdonald who has earlier directed The Last King Of Scotland. What a movie that was!! No wonder this one was so good. Coming back to the cast again - it had an amazing supporting cast of Robin Wright Penn(jenny from Forest Gump) and Jason Bateman(Hancock and Juno) along with others. Jason Bateman played a very interesting character named Dominic Foy. I would say that about 15 mins of the movie that covers his character - was the funniest - everybody in the hall was laughing.

So, whats the movie about? Its a political thriller-drama where there is a murder at the start of the movie and a senior reporter who is the friend of a congressman is trying to get to the bottom of it along with his young colleague who happens to write a blog for their newspaper's online website. So, I will stop here raving about the movie - all I will say is do watch this one. I think its much better than Russell Crowe's last - Body of Lies. Not to mention - that was more of a Leo DeCaprio movie.

After much more delay and a few more weeks of cold wintry rainy weather - the Spring is finally here. It started on late Thursday with a warm afternoon, a beautiful Friday. And what a Saturday - roll down those windows people - the warm weather is here. The air was filled with that new fresh heated up springliness. Don't try to look up that word up in dictionary - I just made it up ;). So, as we explored the area behind our apartments this Saturday afternoon - firstly we noticed this trail in the woods. After walking a few meters, we felt there is a children's play area where a few children are playing - being carefully watched by parents. As we walked further, we realized there is a full-time public park right behind our apartments - just minutes walk away. It has a basketball court, a tennis court, soccer and baseball grounds and some beautiful trails for walks. JackPot !!! I am delighted by the discovery of this public park right behind our home and I am looking forward to spend several of the spring/summer afternoons and evenings there.