Coraline

I arrived in New York on Saturday evening by Chinatown bus, then took the subway up to 110th Street to my cousin's place. It turns out that she and her roommate were in the midst of looking for a new place to live. The rent market in New York City is incredible for renters right now, with unheard-of deals, so they were looking around to upgrade to a better place.

I told my cousin about my plan to see as many movies as possible in Manhattan, and had sent her my list. I told her that I wanted to go to as many different theaters as possible, and that she was very welcome to see as many as she wanted with me. On Sunday morning, she had a break in her apartment hunting, so I invited her along with me to see Coraline.

"But we have to see it at the Ziegfield Theater, though," I said. She was up for it. I was thrilled to have her along. The weather was warm for a change, and it was a pleasant journey by subway to Midtown.

It turns out that the movie theater is not the original Broadway stage theater, which was torn down in 1966. Nevertheless the movie theater is a huge, traditional single auditorium theater that is full of photographs and memorabilia from the old stage venue.

Although I've expressed an aversion to 3-D, the Ziegfield was showing Coraline in 3-D, so I cheerfully went along, apologizing in advance to my cousin in case it wasn't a good experience.

But it was. The movie was a fun story that kept my interest the whole way through. The 3-D technology turned out to be useful and interesting, although I did forget about it for huge stretches, as in previous cases. But I was definitely very glad I had seen it in 3-D, and restored my faith in the technology more than a little. At no time did I get a headache, as I had in previous 3-D experiences.

The tension in the narrative is driven by a neglectful mother character (Teri Hatcher), who is too wrapped up in her own interests to pay attention to her daughter. She's not enough of a "real mother" in traditional terms, and thus a dark fantasy world is created to balance out this "lack" in the real world. The narrative is driven by the reconciliation of the real world to this lack. In many ways, it is thus yet another statement of how women cannot have it all, but one that is expressed in creative and interesting terms that are not cliched.

My favorite part of the movie was the dancing mice circus. I'd see the movie again, just to see that sequence.