Coraline, the movie

Thanks to my fabulous friend Jen, who won some sort of contest, I got to take my 9-year-old son to a private screening of the movie "Coraline" this morning. We had a great time together, and there was swag! Here's one of the t-shirts we got--it's cute so I might actually wear it.

The movie was a visual feast, and my son and I both enjoyed it. It was perfect for a 9-year-old, but I think too scary for my 4-year-old girl, and not scary enough for my 12-year-old boy. I have not read the book, so I can't compare them, but the movie was beautifully executed. It is billed as "the first stop-motion, feature film shot in stereoscopic 3D", and you have to wear 3D glasses to watch it. According to the press materials, it was an extremely laborious process. That labor shows, as the detail is pretty spectacular. I especially enjoyed the scene of the Jumping Mouse circus and the scene of the garden coming alive.

My older son is reading Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book now, and I'm waiting for a Bookmooch copy of Stardust. So I'm being introduced, a little late, to Neil Gaiman's world. Does anyone have any thoughts about Coraline the book, on its own, or vs. the movie?

The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, a review--and the film

Okay, I almost never go to the movies any more--and I live in Hollywood--it's expected of me! But with three kids, who has the time? And with the cost of the babysitter, the tickets, and the popcorn, who has the cash?

But I might make the effort and see director Mira Nair's newest, an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel The Namesake: A Novel.

The Namesake is a drama about an Indian family in America, focusing on the son, Gogol Ganguli, who is saddled with the neither Indian nor American name of Gogol, after the writer. Lahiri tells the tale of Gogol's growing up straddling American and Bengali culture with wit and sensitivity. The Namesake is a satisfying follow-up after Lahiri's Pulitzer-prize-winning book of stories, Interpreter of Maladies.

And the earlier work of film director Mira Nair, who has tackled The Namesake, is worth checking out on Netflix. I couldn't bring myself to see her version of Thackeray's Vanity Fair (2004), which starred Reese Witherspoon, but I have always loved her earlier movie Mississippi Masala (1991), a romance about the adventures of an Indian family transplanted to the American south, with a hunky, young Denzel Washington in the lead. Also great are her films Salaam Bombay (1988), and Monsoon Wedding (2001).