ABSTRACT THURSDAY AND FILM REVIEW

This photograph was taken from exactly the same position as the one I took yesterday, but I was up later, so it does look different.  Apparently, when Mr. HCB got up just after 6.30 a.m. it was frosty, so I daresay that when I go out to finish off the rest of the fence painting, I will need my fleece and hat because that part of the garden won’t see the sun until well after lunch.
 
You can see the fence that I have already painted blue – and as I have another 5 litre tin of paint in the same colour, have decided that the rest of the fence will be painted blue – but not just any old blue – this is “mountain” blue – and it’s looking good - 70 feet done and just 30 feet to go!
 
Now for my thoughts about “The Light Between Oceans, the film my friend, Caroline, and I went to see on Tuesday – and it was cheap day for grannies, so only cost us £4 each – a bargain, we thought.  Watching the various trailers before the film started, I think there may be a lot of Tuesdays taken care of this winter!
 
The film is based on the first novel of Australian writer, M L Stedman and is set off the coast of Western Australia, about a World War I survivor who goes to live with his young wife in a remote lighthouse on the island of Janus.  Michael Fassbender plays the male lead and Alicia Vikander the female lead – and they were both excellent and there were some very touching moments between them. The little girl, played by Florence Clery, reminded Caroline of her granddaughter, so that was rather poignant for her.
 
We both thought the film was rather slow to start with, but I guess having read the book, we knew what was coming next so we were waiting for it to happen.  The whole film was beautifully produced, with some wonderful scenery and storms and having seen at the beginning that it contained “scenes of moderate sex” we both agreed that this was done very tastefully, within the context of the film.  Another thing that pleased me was that there was no swearing at all – so it is possible to make a film with four letter expletives!  Occasionally, it was difficult to hear what the actors were saying, but because I knew the story, it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the film.
 
Don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but it is certainly worth going to see and it did stick pretty much to the storyline of the book – personally, I would love to have seen it as a six or ten part series on the television, so that the characters could have been developed more, but in the time available – just over two hours – I think even if you hadn’t read the book, you would have got the general gist of the story.
 
Tissues were used – so grab yourself a pack and go and see it – in fact, at that price, you could treat someone! 
 
The best quote in the film for me was this:
 
“You only have to forgive once.
To resent,
     you have to do it
          all day,
               every day.”
M.L. Stedman