Z/Web

Fascinating film about Carlo Boschi, a.k.a. Farinelli, a castrato — a castrated choir boy — who becomes the world’s greatest singer in the 1730’s, a contemporary of Handel. The film is mainly about the relationship between him and his brother, and I found it fascinating. His brother’s a composer who gains fame through his brother’s voice yet there are questions about his talent. Overall the film’s flawed: it has some rough spots, is confusing with its excessive use of flashbacks, and a touch long. But it is incredibly interesting, with excellent performances, and tells an unusual tale. I really liked the debates about creativity, inspiration, and talent. Worth seeing. Best line: After Carlo proposes to a woman who rejects him with laughter, he apologizes by saying, “I have played God so many times on stage I thought I could be a Man off stage.”

Another uneven film. This movie didn’t know what it was. The promos made it sound like a comedy: having Ben Stiller in it made that seem logical. But Ben played straight man in this, and though there were a few humorous situations, it didn’t work. Bill Pullman plays the world’s greatest, most eccentric private eye, Darryl Zero; Stiller’s his mouthpiece, as he doesn’t talk with clients in person. The mystery’s not bad, but rather predictable, though I liked the way Zero solved things. But the film drags on forever at a glacial pace, and meanders, not knowing what it is: comedy? romance? film noir? private eye flick? Who knows? Falls flat.

Awesome game! No regular league soccer this weekend as it’s World Cup qualifiers, so I shelled out twenty bucks to watch this on pay-per-view. It seemed outrageous to me, but then some morons pay $60 for wrestling, so who’s to say. Anyway, this turned out to be an excellent game. England was at the bottom of their group and this was a must-win for them to have any shot at going to the World Cup in 2002. Their new coach, Lazio’s Erikson, had to come up with a critical win in his first real game (their recent friendly didn’t count). Things weren’t looking good when England’s early pressure didn’t yield a goal, and suddenly a mistake at the back deflected the ball into the net instead of clearing it: Finland were ahead. England kept pushing, however, and just before the half miracle boy Michael Owen became a hero when his long shot curled into the goal. In the second half, England came out storming, and Captain David Beckham came up big. He got the ball on the right side with some space and blasted it into the Finnish goal. He’d had a few great shots during the game and they all went right to the keeper, but this one struck pay dirt. The Finns couldn’t come back from their deficit, though they fought hard and made the last ten minutes very interesting. In the end, though, all was well for England. Final: 2-1 England.