Thursday, November 24, 2016

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them


    The Niffler who escapes from the suitcase; I thought a better name would be Tealeaf!
 
On the day when all our American friends are gathered with their families for Thanks Giving, it is still a work day for us lot in the UK and I spent most of the morning with office work on the computer before Steve had to go and get some more physical work done.

My Favourite Beast: The Bowruckle, every child should have one.

I still have this stupid bug that will not let me stop coughing and apart from not feeling brilliant when I first get up and then again in the late evening, I am giving thanks that I do not feel that bad; plenty of people are much worst off than me with just a little winter bug to contend with. 

I did manage to get out and go to see ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’, yesterday afternoon. Steve dropped me down there for the 1.30pm show and picked me up for the 3.50pm turnout. It is quite a long film, 2 hours 13 mins, considering that I would think it would mainly attracted children.
 
 

There were not any children for this matinee showing, in fact there were very few people there at all, I did a quick head count and thought we were fourteen people who did not like each other much from their choice of seating. I had at least the back three or four rows to myself and that I was coughing now and again did not really notice because quite a lot of the film has plenty of noise. I took cough sweets, a bottle of water and a hankie with Pine Oil sprinkled on it to keep me as quiet as possible. 

I loved it to bits from the beginning to the end; it was quite delightful, though maybe not scary enough for older children. Eddie Redmayne was utterly charming as Newt Scamander who seemed to know all about where to find the Fantastic Beasts and how to care for and protect them.
 
The old chestnut in the plot about mistakenly getting hold of the wrong suitcase will be forgiven I am sure. As usual with The Harry Potter collection of books and the movies they end up as, it was full of stars. Colin Farrell was wonderfully slick and menacing as Percival Graves complete with flowing silk lined coat, stuck-back hair cut and maybe he had had the usually bushy eyebrow, heavily pruned.
 
 
Dan Fogler was adorable as baker with the wrong case, Jacob Kowalski. Several other great stars were happy to play small parts very seriously. Jon Voight and Ron Perling too (from Sons of Anarchy) and who turns up in the end as the super international baddie Gellert Grindelwald, but the lovely Johnny Depp heavily hidden beneath a mountain of makeup. Super special effects throughout and all the Fantastic Beasts were indeed just that. It will be one of those films that kids watch over and over again and never tire of as good prevails and evil is defeated as we all hope it always will be.
 
 

This is not a piece of modern art but, looking down into the chalky water from the centre of the bridge near Arundel Castle Dairy. I thought it was pretty
 
 

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