This is Christmas

Seriously folks, this has been a very weird holiday this year. I slept in this morning again after a great Christmas Eve service. Olaf had a great sermon and boss #2 surprised me there with his family. That was a shock. And I think I accidentally spit on his wife after church - I was chewing gum and telling a story and I think I glicked a little. Whoops. Hopefully she won't hold it against me. Maybe not since she hugged me before we parted ways.

But today I talked with my family a bit, then putzed around for a couple hours. Then I went to this. Truly a Christmas movie if there ever was one. I was surprised how many people were at the movies today. It was crappy weather - snow, snow and some more snow to mix on to the crappy streets - but the theatre line was packed. Charlie Wilson's War sold out but luckily I wasn't going to that one.

There were more people at my movie than I thought there would be. I mean, yeah, it has Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter, and was directed by Tim Burton, but it's a musical. The guy to my right said to his friends after the show, "I just about threw up when they started singing. I didn't know this was a friggin' musical." But at least he said he liked the show despite of the singing. The guy to my left, however, snored through the first 30 minutes, then his date/wife/whatever woke him up so he breathed loudly for another 15 before pushing through our row to go get food. He came back with the one movie snack that should totally be outlawed: Nachos.

Popcorn isn't a quiet food either, but at least you can kind of eat it quietly - it's all about taking just a few pieces at a time, squishing it in your mouth and then chewing quietly. Nachos aren't a quiet snack. The guy chomped and chomped for 20 minutes, occasionally pausing to slurp (seriously, slurp) his drink. Then he'd sigh because it was a lot of work to chomp and slurp. And I think he had some breathing issues because he breathed really loud for a lot of the movie, snoozing a bit more later, and truly annoying me and the people in front of him (who left about 75 minutes in and didn't return - not sure if it was because of the show or because of him).

Anyway, the show was amazing. Tim Burton is a genius. The color of the film - hard to describe - but it fit so well...showing the dark side of the life Sweeney had to live, but the flashbacks and fantasies in brilliant color. And the music....ah Sondheim. *sigh* The music was incredible - brilliantly written and scored. And Johnny can sing and so can Helena which surprised me. It brought back a few memories since I sang "Green Finch and Linnet Bird" for my senior recital. I'm really looking forward to seeing the stage version in February.

Do go see this film if you like musicals, or Johnny Depp, or bloody shows. It's a win, win, win on all counts. And Merry Christmas! :)