"A Mighty Heart" is a minor effort

I'll admit going into the new Angelina Jolie flick, "A Mighty Heart", hoping for a stunner. Instead, it was much smaller and much less engaging than I'd expected. My rating - a bland C-plus. Jolie is wonderful - passionate, controlled, with a flawless accent and complete command of the screen. Some of the surrounding cast is also quite good, although Dan Futterman as the doomed Daniel Pearl is at best a cardboard cutout who seems to have gotten the job because he looks like Pearl's clone. But this is one to wait to rent. Which is really too bad because it will probably disappear from public view with little more than a whisper of respect. This tragic story deserves much more attention. It just feels way too early to have gone after this story on film.

We head back to Seattle this evening after a wonderful week in Santa Barbara. The weather has been unparalleled in it's beauty. Warm, dry, clear days stacked up one after another. But like much of the country this time of year, drought is leading to the threat of a tough fire season. Last night after a artful, killer meal at Emilio's (my sentimental favorite restaurant here for a long list of reasons), we went back to my in-laws house just in time to catch the moonrise. A wildfire many miles away filled the air with a burnt smell and cast the just past full moon with the most stunning bright orange glow. I can't recall ever seeing anything like it. It looked like Mars, surrounded by a halo of ochre clouds. How sad it is to appreciate a view due to forest fires in the unseen distance. Yet how hauntingly beautiful it was.

Hope your own views are beautifully guilt-free. Rock on.