I just got back from seeing Valkyrie.  Now, I am by no means a fan of Tom Cruise.  I tend to think he’s a big ol’ nutter butter.  But I really liked this movie.  And what a great cast!  Kenneth Brannagh, Bill Nighy, even that guy from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies who plays Mr. Gibbs.  He cleans up - and acts - extremely well.  This movie has the main ingredient you need in a good historical drama - even though I know how this turned out… I was still riveted.  I knew the end before I bought my ticket, but I was holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat (in the incredibly cold theatre… which was out of Sprite and receipt paper… and who lied when we asked for directions to the theatre we had actually been trying to find).  OH!  And the guy playing Hitler!  Man… I can’t imagine what that must do to an actor - to have to put yourself into a person like that - to have to embody someone who may well have been the closest to real evil that human history has ever seen.  He was so unsettling.  He makes only a couple of appearances, but he sent shivers up my spine.

So in summary, I say, go see it.  (And… if you went to see Mama Mia earlier in the year, demand that Pierce Brosnan pay for your ticket to Valkyrie.)  While I don’t necessarily think good ol’ Tommy deserves an Oscar, I think he did some good work, was in GREAT company, and they created an intriguing and worthy film. 

I’m 29 years old, which is by no means old, right?  Though I am at that age now where sometimes I get carded and sometimes I don’t.  In general, I assume that I won’t, because I think it’s pretty clear that I’m by no means under 21, but still, I get carded about 55% of the time.  Including the time when I went to buy wine a couple weeks ago.  I was carded by the girl at the checkout.  Fine.  A few days ago, wine was, again, on my shopping list.  (I am, apparently, something of a wine drinker these days.)  And, as I had been carded the last time, I pulled out my ID along with my card, ready to present it.  At which point, the guy behind the counter laughed at me and said, "You’re playing with me, right?"  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!  I mean, don’t card me: fine.  Say, "That’s okay, ma’am, I don’t need to see your ID.": Fine.  But laugh in my face as if I’m such a decrepit old hag that the thought I might be carded is utterly preposterous: I will destroy you.  I’m not a complain-about-low-paid-people-in-a-service-industry type of person, but this REALLY rubbed me the wrong way.  So I emailed the store and told them their super polite, squeaky clean exterior got a big ol’ dent in it for me the other day.  The manager asked me to approach him the next time I come in so that he can apologize in person.  I’m not particularly interested in having that conversation - I don’t particularly need some guy trying to get me to identify the kid I saw for 3 minutes a couple weeks ago.  Although there’s a part of me that wants to let him see me so that he can see that I’m a cardable person.

I have a feeling my 30th birthday isn’t going to be pretty.