We did a bunch of apartment cleaning (always made interesting by being skrunched into a one bedroom apartment while still looking for a home).  We dropped Basil off at our dog sitter’s and did some errands.

We ate dinner at Bistro Ka’s at the local (huge) mall, Topanga Canyon Mall run by Woodfield.  The food was really good – we both had Bento boxes so we could try some of their sushi and some of their cooked choices.

Then we shopped a little at the mall to kill some time – I stopped at Lupicia Fresh Tea, a shop that sells, yes, wait for it – teas from around the world.  I bought small bags of two teas, a Keemun Special Grade black tea from China (I’m drinking that now – it has a slightly smoky flavor that’s very nice with a touch of sweetner and a little milk), and a bag of Kyobancha, which is a full (rolled) leaf green tea.

And then it was off to see “Revolutionary Road.”

I don’t know why this movie is up for best picture.  The general theme could have been really interesting – what happens to our youthful dreams as we proceed through life and often start adopting our neighbor’s goals instead of our own.  And there are great cinematic moments in my opinion, for example the scenes where Leonardo DeCaprio’s character, Frank Wheeler, heads into the office just like every other “salary man” (to appropriate a Japanese term).  The scene near the end when Kate Winslet’s character, April Wheeler, walks away from their back door, is perhaps the movie’s strongest moment (and in my opinion should have been when the movie ended).

But the writing is uneven.  The screen writer doesn’t supply enough of the backstory to make sense of everything that happens (this is a common problem when moving a book to a picture I think – this is an adaptation of a book by Yates).  And some of the acting is over the top, due I think to the direction and the writing.

And the ending left me very unsatisfied (from an emotional sense as well as the story).

I think this is a good movie, not a great one.