Anthony Lane on Peter Weir

And here is self, curled up in bed, reading yet another New Yorker (She might as well go ahead and renew her subscription.  Yes, she’d better), this one of January 31, 2011.

She’s reading an Anthony Lane review of Peter Weir’s latest movie, “The Way Back” (She’s missed him since “Master and Commander,” one of her 10 Favorite Films of All Time —  along with “Platoon,” “The Usual Suspects,” “L.A. Confidential,” “Alien,” “Blade Runner,” “Lantana” —  Self’s list keeps changing, but Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander” is pretty much a constant).

Anyhoo, Lane gives a re-cap of some of Peter Weir’s past movies, and fails to mention:  a) “Last Picnic at Hanging Rock” b) “Witness” and c) “Master and Commander.”  He does get in mention of one of self’s least-favorite Peter Weir movies, “The Truman Show.”  And another that she has never seen:  “Green Card,” in which, according to Lane, “jungle music thrummed at night” through Andie MacDowell’s apartment while “she and Gerard Depardieu lay in separate rooms, awake with unappeasable lust.”  (Sold! Self will rent this one from Netflix, soon as she’s finished viewing “Splice”!)

Here’s Lane again, killing self with witticisms:  He has praise for Ed Harris, who “plays an American known as Smith.”  Someone asks him for a first name.  “Mr.,” he replies.  This is a movie about men who escape from a Stalinist prison camp, but while Harris’ features are appropriately “riven and desperate,” the “rest of the actors, through no fault of their own, never look as shrivelled by hunger as they should.”

And then Lane goes on to reveal aspects of the plot, and —  Stop right there, self! You know you’ll see this movie, no matter what!

So self decides to stop reading.  She does think it is pretty amazing that this movie is based on a true story, and some of the escapees did make it to freedom, “crossing the Himalayas into India after a trek of some four thousand miles.”

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.