Z/Web

Author: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger

Director: Michael Powell

Surprisingly effective film. I loved the beautifully simple story: a strong-minded young woman who knows what she wants sets off from England to a remote Scottish island to marry her wealthy fiance. Unfortunately a gale blows in and boats can’t get to the island, so she’s stranded until the gale stops. She meets a nice man while waiting, and after days of trying desperately to get to the island to marry her rich fiance, when the sun finally emerges and the boat arrives, she realizes she doesn’t want to go: she’s in love with the other man. The simplicity of the story belies the complexity of emotions and character, and the frustration of a woman who’s so sure of herself discovering she’s not so sure of herself is delightful. The cinematography is excellent, and the dramatic storm/whirlpool scene is filmed better than today’s films (the horrible The Perfect Storm comes to mind). Impressive technically, with a good story to make it worthwhile.

Author: Stephen Frey

Quick-reading thriller about a guy who quits his job to start day trading full time using the million dollars from his wife’s life insurance policy. But his wife was murdered and suddenly he’s a suspect. He finds himself surrounded by strange people who aren’t who they say they are: what’s going on? Interesting while you’re reading it, but in retrospect a lot of stuff doesn’t make much sense. Also, the story is told first person, and often we find out things just as the narator does (fine), but just as often he doesn’t tell us stuff he knows until he deems it the appropriate time, making us wonder if he’s reliable. The day trading stuff is interesting, though occasionally he lectures us like we’re morons, or mentions something is “complicated” and proceeds to detail something that’s pretty obvious. The writing is average (the first chapter is poor, but it gets better), but the story is pretty good. Unfortunately a lot of it strains credibility. The author also lives in a different world: the narrator claims he makes $39,000 a year at his job, and his wife also works full-time, they have no kids, drive old cars, and live in a modest home, and yet considers himself poor and in desperate financial shape. Come on — $60K a year (assuming his wife doesn’t make much) with no kids isn’t poor. But then the author is a financial expert, so I guess he thinks anyone who doesn’t make $100K a year is starving. This wouldn’t be too bad if this was only mentioned once in the book, but it’s practically a theme. At least by the end the narrator’s come to his senses and isn’t going to blow the entire million dollars day trading. A pleasant read; just don’t expect too much.