Smoke

Nope, this time it's not my apparent obsession with smoking .

I just watched this movie[^] and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a somewhat episodic movie that weaves the lives of 4 or 5 different people into a tapestry; tending in the end toward a depiction of this story[^]. I got the link to the story from Joel Spolsky's[^] site. Joel also mentioned the movie, which I'd never heard of. It sounded vaguely interesting so I checked if Phoenix Public Library had a copy of the DVD. They did !

*spoilers*

I was really hoping, as the movie unfolded, that the director wouldn't spoil things by literally filming Auggie Wrens story. He didn't. If you've ever seen this movie[^] you'll know how persuasively film can show you things without ever showing you those things. (Note to self) Rave about My Dinner with Andre another time . Instead the movie showed Auggie Wren telling his story over that lunch, cutting between the face of the narrator and the listener. Absolutely engrossing film making!

And then, adding to the magic, came the closing credits. This time we did get to see Auggie Wrens story, in black and white, just showing various scenes from the story as they might have been; without dialogue (we didn't need the dialogue - we knew the story by this time). It really works well! A very enjoyable film and I recommend it most heartily!