Graham Simpkins, The Holiday, 2006

There are some movies that are just keepers.  Ones I enjoy watching over and over.  The Holiday is one of those movies, and though I’m not really a Jude Law fan, there’s something so vulnerable about him in this movie that I’m almost a convert.  Graham Simpkins is a book editor in England.  His sister, Iris, works for a newspaper in Surrey.  When her love life falls apart, she swaps houses with a woman from LA and goes on a two week holiday.  

Stats:

Graham gets phone calls from girls when he’s with love interest Amanda.  One call is from Sophie, the other from Olivia.  Obviously, he comes with baggage.  The truth of the matter is that these two people in his life are his daughters, and he keeps them private, reluctant to introduce anyone to them who might not be there for very long and who might disrupt the fragile balance he and his girls have.  They’re the three musketeers.

When Amanda comes calling to Graham’s house one evening before Christmas, she discovers Graham is not alone.  She says to him, “Are you married?  Tell me quick.”

He shakes his head and spells, “W. I. D. O. W. E. R.”

That moment shines a light on Graham and who he is inside, the world he’s trying to protect, and what his future will hold if he lets someone into this private haven he’s created for his children.

The Look:

Golden skin, blondish hair, blue devilish eyes, and a dazzling smile.  When he puts a napkin over his head, dons his eyeglasses and sucks the cloth into his mouth, he becomes ‘Mr. Napkinhead’, a look that makes him even more lovable.  

Jude Law plays Graham with just the right amount of devil-may-care flare and vulnerability.  He even cries [a little bit–which actually I don’t love] so he’s a really emotionally accessible man in the end.

Leading Lady:

Amanda Woods makes movie trailers.  Meanwhile her love life is in a shambles.  When she trades homes with Iris, she thinks not being around anyone she knows will be a good thing.  Instead, she’s never been more lonely in her life.  Until, that is, she meets Graham Simpkins.  

Amanda’s never gotten over the divorce of her parents.  She doesn’t cry.  At all.  Until Graham shows her love and how to feel more deeply than she’s ever felt before.  They compliment each other.  Who knows how they’ll manage a cross-continental relationship, but I’m rooting for them.

The Final Analysis:

The Holiday is one of those movies I will watch once a year, or so.  When I’m feeling blah, or just wanting an ‘ahhh’ moment, it’s the perfect escape.  Jude Law is a perfect Graham Simpkins and he’s a big part of why I like this movie.  It’s a great romantic comedy and worth the rental.  

Question of the Day:

What’s your favorite ‘ahhhh’ movie when you need a romantic fix?

Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Stargate, SG-1

(Professor, Warrior, Best Friend, Lost Soul)

First episode premiered on US TV: July, 1997 

Ran 10 Years Last episode shown on US TV: June 2007

The Look:  6’, lean, muscular, sky blue eyes, glasses.Portrayed by actor Michael Shanks, who has a talent for voice characterization, languages and accents; which is a good thing because Daniel supposedly speaks 23 Earth languages and 4 alien ones.Mr. Shanks was cast as Daniel for the TV show as a result of his spot-on imitation of and sometimes uncanny resemblance to the Daniel Jackson created by James Spader for the original Stargate movie.

The Layers:

Professor: Holder of  PhD’s in Archeology, Anthropology and Linguistics, this archeologist is not a Swashbuckler.  A thirst for knowledge is his raison d’etre, not a thirst for adventure.

Warrior: Forced into this role at first to save his wife and later to save himself, his teammates, the planet and the galaxy.  He has evolved into a competent soldier able to hold his own in a fire fight although hand-to-hand is not a strength and the military attitude of ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ is never his first choice.

Best Friend: Trustworthy, he is a compassionate, caring and peaceful man. He is often the diplomat, brokering alliances between Earth and alien races. He will do anything for the sake and safety of his teammates, planet and galaxy…including self-sacrifice.

Lost Soul: The only child of American archeologists living and working in Egypt, he is a misfit to American society almost from the day he is born.  A child prodigy of languages; he speaks three by the time he is age five  Orphaned at the age of eight by a freak archeological accident, he witnessed, that killed both parents.  He is put into foster care because his only relative, his maternal grandfather will not adopt him.  He bounces through the foster care system, isolated, unwanted and unadopted until he is able to on his own at 16 when he enters college at least two years younger than his classmates. This early life creates a man reticent, and self-protective. Very few people are allowed inside his personal space.  Yet because he lacked positive adult approval as he grew up he has no real sense of self-worth as evidenced by his all-too willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good.  

Leading Lady(ies):

“Stargate”, the original movie ended with Daniel(James Spader) staying on the planet that most of the movie took place on because he found himself married to the village princess who was offered to him as thanks for his role in destroying the parasitic creature that terrorized the planet.

In the first episode of the TV series, Daniel(Michael Shanks) returns to Earth having lost his wife, whom he had fallen deeply in love with, to another of the same parasitic race of creatures.  His background goal for the first 3 seasons is to save her.  During one episode during this time he must help her deliver a child the parasite’s mate had impregnated her with.  During the third season one of his teammates must kill her before she kills Daniel. For the next four seasons he remains in deep mourning for her.

Halfway thru season 8, the Earth space-battlecruiser he is aboard is commandeered by a seemingly dangerous enemy.  He manages to escape the en masse removal of the rest of the crew; in effect making himself a hostage.  He is stunned when the enemy is revealed to be a beautiful, smart, tough, sexy space pirate by the name of Vala (Claudia Black). In her past she was also a victim of the same race of parasites as his wife, but managed to survive, although she had to resort to a life of crime to do so.  Vala’s surface persona of seductress, thief and con artist is Daniel’s complete antithesis.  In their first encounter she physically beats him up, lies to him, tries to seduce him and almost gets him killed.  In their second encounter she again takes him hostage to help her find treasure, by means of an alien device that it turns out will kill them both should they get too far apart or one of them die.  The necessity to stay in close proximity to each other to keep themselves alive creates a bond that is strengthened when another alien device puts the two of them in a life threatening situation where they must depend solely on each other. The first device is eventually removed but the bond created has penetrated their myriad self-defense mechanisms.  Time and circumstances inevitably bring them back together. By the end of the final season(Season 10) they have forged a friendship that allows them to work together, trusting each other with their lives and may lead to them accepting that what they are to each other is more than friends.

Favourite Quotes:

First encounter, mid season 8: she has just punched him, after a moments hesitation he punches her back

Vala(indignant, holding her nose in pain) “You hit me.”

Daniel(exasperated): “You hit me!”

Vala: “You know we could just have sex instead.”

Second encounter, beginning of season 9: in the base infirmary after it has been discovered what the true effects of the alien bracelets are

Daniel(in an aside to one of his teammates): “Just to clarify. When I kill her…I die too?” 

Mid season 10: after circumstances have brought them back together, she has settled on Earth and is working on his team; she is abducted. When the team finally finds her, she has no memory of herself or of them.  Terrified and trying to escape she threatens to shoot Daniel.

Vala: “Now get out of my way or I will shoot you.”

Daniel: “If I let you go, you’ll just disappear.  You’ve been running so long it’s almost second nature to you. You don’t remember, but I do.  You made a decision to stop running. It’s over. It’s time to come home.”

Bottom Line:   A complicated, wounded man who deserves a “happily ever after”.

Guest Columnist June Collins: 

I am a not-yet-seeking-publication novice writer.  I began writing as a teenage…the usual teenage stuff.  Thankfully most of it has been lost to the mists of time.  I put pen to paper again in the late 90s, once it was no longer necessary for me to use all my brain for the care of my children. 

I have two or three original WIPs in various stages, but have become distracted by the complex, complicated relationship between the hero I’ve just described and his leading lady.  I’m now playing in the genre of  “fan fiction”.  Here you will  find the postings of the ‘opus’ that I’m currently working on, plus two other pieces I have written in this ‘fandom’. The other multi-chapter one has been nominated for two separate ‘fan’ awards. 

Perhaps when I’ve completed  the WIP I have in this ‘fandom’ I’ll go back to my original pieces….if I can create characters that capture my imagination like these two do. 

If any of the writers here that are way more accomplished than I, actually read any of my work I’d love to hear privately anything you’d like to say – good and bad. 

Is Nemo or his dad, Marlin, a bigger hero in the movie FINDING NEMO?  I think it’s a toss up.  They both undergo a huge change in their understanding of themselves and of each other.  And they both perform heroically in various scenes.  Today, I’ve chosen Marlin as my hero profile.  He’s a little bit charmer and a little bit professor and he’s all fish.

STATS:

Marlin is a clown fish who can’t manage to tell a funny joke.  He stops to explain his joke, thereby ruining the flow and punchline.  He lost his wife and million little babies to a baracuda attack at their anemone home and the tragedy left him full of fear for his one remaining fishy son, Nemo.

THE LOOK:

Orange, white and black.  He’s a looker.

LEADING LADY:

Dori, the memory-challenged blue fish that helps Marlin find Nemo and becomes his companion.  She challenges Marlin without trying by forcing him to face his insecurities and by bringing him into situations that require him to dig deep within himself in order to survive or overcome.  For example, when Dori joins three sharks and their Fish Are Not Food Recovery Meeting, Marlin must control his own fear in order to ensure that Dori is safe. 

Likewise, Marlin helps Dori reach inside herself and pull out memories that end up helping them find Nemo.  The two fish compliment each other and bring out the best of each other, and what more could a clown fish want from a platonic partner?

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Finding Nemo is a fanstastic movie full of character arcs, wrought with conflict, and deep with emotion.  Marlin is portrayed as a caring, if over-protective, dad who must learn to let his son make his own mistakes.  It’s a hard lesson for both Marlin and Nemo, especially when Nemo, in true teenage form, rebels and gets himself trapped in a dentist’s fish tank.  But it’s the heroic nature of Marlin, Nemo, Dori, and the fish in the tank that parallel the heroism that is in all of us.  Friendship, in fact, is the element that fosters the heroism in these characters. 

FINDING NEMO contains lessons for all of us, and the characters, particularly Marlin and Nemo [for us parents] exemplify the heriosm that we may not always see in ourselves and in our children.

Question of the Day:

Is Nemo or Marlin more of a hero in FINDING NEMO?

The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes (St. Martin’s Press, 2007)

Eileen Dreyer crafts a fine hero in her collaborative effort, The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes. Danny James has a secret (which I won’t reveal here), but it’s a big one and one that threatens to tear him away from his true love, Dee Fortune. He’s a Charmer and a Professor rolled into one. Heavy on the charm.

STATS: He’s tall, dark, and handsome. He rides a motorcycle. And he has a 1000 watt smile.

THE LOOK:

‘Tall, lithe, and dark, his sable hair just a little too long, his leather jacket a little too worn, and his battered jeans a little too tight. In short, as wicked as sin. Especially when he smiled. When he smiled he was Dennis Quaid in Daniel Day-Lewis’s body.” With a physique to “make a grown woman weep” and cobalt-teal blue eyes, Danny James is a man hard to resist.

LEADING LADY:

Deirdre Dolores Fortune, aka Dee, is a shape shifter and doesn’t let herself become attracted or invested in men. ‘She didn’t allow it; it was too dangerous. She’d tried a few times, letting herself believe that the arousal from hormones would affect her differently than the agitation of anger or fear. She’d been wrong. She’d ended up sending two guys into therapy and another to an ashram in India. She could still hear him screaming as he ran into the night, her bra dangling from his hand after she’d shifted right there in the back seat of his Jeep. And not into anything as cute as an owl. No, she’d shifted into his mother.’

Dee considers herself the oldest virgin in North America, but when Danny James enters her life, she finds it hard to resist him. Will they be able to resist each other? Will Dee shift into Danny’s mother while they’re in the throws of passion? And will Danny run screaming, never to be heard from again?

I won’t tell!

WHAT MAKES DANNY SO IRRESISTIBLE?

His charming sense of expression? In a conversation with Dee about whether or not she’s gifted, he says,

“Are you?”

“Me what?”

“Are you gifted?”

“Why, yes, thank you. I can knit and tap-dance a little, and I’m a whiz with a block of ice and a chain saw.”

“What about…?” He let his hands drift through the air, the universal sign language for “woo-woo.”

Can’t you just picture that?

Or maybe it’s his smile. It’s bright, “all teeth and delight”. It sounds irresistible to me.

Or perhaps it’s his creative use of a feather boa and pop beads while in a stone circle on a mountaintop with Dee. He brought the whiskey and the truffles, and with Dee in her “virgin-on-the-way-to-a-sacrifice look”, he has great inspiration for being resourceful with delightful accessories.

BOTTOM LINE:

Aunt Xan brought the Fortune sisters their true loves. What this means for Dee is Danny James, secrets and all. He’s a nicely crafted hero.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Does a hero who rides a motorcycle have to have a bad boy streak in him? I’m not sure Danny James does, but the motorcycle is a nice touch. What do you think?