MY VIEWING DIARY

The only good thing that has come from being forced to stay-in-place during this pandemic is the opportunity to actually stay at home and watch movies I had been saving to see in my streaming queues (on Netflix or Amazon) or re-watch films that I haven't seen in many years. Finding time had prevented me from doing either one of these activities and now that I find that I have nothing but endless time, I might as well take advantage.

Here is the first in a series of some of the films I have watched in no particular order:

"Coma" (1978)

I thought I had seen "Coma", the sci-fi-mystery thriller from novelist and filmmaker, Michael Crichton, but I realize that I must have only watched part of this film. 

Based on the book by Robin Cook, Geneviève Bujold stars as Susan Wheeler, a surgeon at Boston Memorial Hospital, who is devastated after a friend (Lois Chiles) that had come in for a routine procedure (an abortion!) ends up brain-dead and in a coma. After this happens again to another young, healthy patient (played by Tom Selleck in this brief, early film role displaying the easy charm and swagger he would bring to his future television series, "Magnum P.I."), Wheeler becomes suspicious and brings her concerns to the hospital's chief of surgery, Dr. George Harris (Richard Widmark). She is reassured that these were only unfortunate accidents yet she's not convinced. Wheeler begins her own investigation, eventually discovering the shocking truth. 

"Coma" is one of several popular suspense dramas that came out in the '70's that featured women as the central figure in the plot. Now that I've seen the entire film, I can say with complete certainty that "Coma" is thoroughly entertaining with great performances and the science actually holds up fairly well. Michael Douglas, fresh off of his TV success on "The Streets of San Francisco", appears in a supporting role as Wheeler's fellow doctor and boyfriend and look out for a baby-faced Ed Harris in his very first screen appearance.



"Earthquake Bird" (2019)

"Earthquake Bird", a Netflix feature film from Wash Westmoreland, the writer/director behind "Quinceañera", "Still Alice" and "Colette", starts off promising yet deteriorates in to a dull and confusing psychological drama. 

Set in 1989 Tokyo, Lucy Fly (Alicia Vikander), an introverted Swedish citizen who speaks fluent Japanese and works as a translator of manuals, meets a handsome local photographer, Teji (Naoki Kobayashi). They begin an intense relationship but because each of them have mysterious and troubled pasts, this complicates their potential romance. And when Lily Bridges (Riley Keough), an American tourist who befriends Lucy after deciding to move to Japan (and not concerned with learning the language), becomes entangled in their lives, the connection between this trio becomes very strange with deadly consequences. 

Much like it's title, "Earthquake Bird" is a disconnected mystery with the muddled conclusion delivering more questions than answers.



"Heartburn" (1986)

Based on Nora Ephron's Roman à clef novel (which she also wrote the screenplay), "Heartburn" features Meryl Streep as the stand-in for the writer, Rachel Samstat, a New York food columnist who meets a Washington DC political journalist, Mark Forman, played by Jack Nicholson (coasting on his charm) and who represents Ephron's former husband, Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporter behind the investigation of the Watergate scandal. The couple begin a whirlwind romance; quickly getting married, moving into a dilapidated Georgetown townhouse with plans to refurbish and awaiting the arrival of their first baby. Since giving up her job and life in NYC to become a full-time wife and mother, Rachel struggles to fit in to insular DC society scene. When the rumor of a married socialite having an affair with someone in town reaches the pregnant Rachel with her second child, the news hits very close to home.

I had seen "Heartburn" in the theaters when it was released in my mid-twenties and with this second viewing, I think I enjoyed this romantic-dramedy even more as a mature adult with some life experience. With Mike Nichols' expert direction, Ms Ephron's razor-sharp wit, Carly Simon's lovely theme song, "Coming Around Again" and appearances by many wonderful actors in supporting roles including Jeff Daniels, Stockard Channing, Catherine O'Hara, Maureen Stapleton, Joanna Gleason, the late film director, Miloš Forman and future Oscar-winners, Mercedes Ruehl and Kevin Spacey, "Heartburn" is an engaging, must-see film.