BOOK REVIEW: Tana French's In The Woods

Review coming soon! **** out of a possible *****!

For now, content yourself with this blurb. SPOILERS BELOW!:

From Publishers Weekly
Irish author French expertly walks the line between police procedural and psychological thriller in her debut. When Katy Devlin, a 12-year-old girl from Knocknaree, a Dublin suburb, is found murdered at a local archeological dig, Det. Rob Ryan and his partner, Cassie Maddox, must probe deep into the victim's troubled family history. There are chilling similarities between the Devlin murder and the disappearance 20 years before of two children from the same neighborhood who were Ryan's best friends. Only Maddox knows Ryan was involved in the 1984 case. The plot climaxes with a taut interrogation by Maddox of a potential suspect, and the reader is floored by the eventual identity and motives of the killer. A distracting political subplot involves a pending motorway in Knocknaree, but Ryan and Maddox are empathetic and flawed heroes, whose partnership and friendship elevate the narrative beyond a gory tale of murdered children and repressed childhood trauma. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Do you REALLY want to believe?

So I checked out "The X-Files: I Want the Believe" on Friday. It wasn't bad. In fact, I quite liked it. I very much agree with Harry Knowles' review, for the most part.

***SPOILERS AHOY!***

There were points in the movie that really got the old "I Want To Believe" pulse going. Skinner's surprise, unbilled appearance was most welcome. I'm glad he had as much screen time a he did towards the end.

It pleased me to see the two ex-agents snugged up with each other in bed, leaving no doubt as to the current parameters of their relationship. Mulder's suggestion of a "little something" to help her sleep cracked me up.

How about Leoben (Actor Callum Keith Rennie) as the Russian organ-courier? Not a surprise to find the Cylons involved in that manner of chicanery . . .

What was up with Mulder and Scully in the rowboat on the ocean at the end of the credits? And waving to the camera on the helicopter overhead? A nod to the "shipper" community, perhaps?

The scene involving the photos of George Bush and J. Edgar Hoover got a rise out of the crowd at the Friday matinee I attended. A bit obvious, but fun nonetheless.

I laughed out loud at the jokes regarding Billy Connelly's character, so much so that this chap in the row behind me commented, in what could charitably be described as a stage whisper, "It wasn't that [expeletive deleted] funny." I turned back to him and said, "Well, I thought it was," and assembled a menu of snappy put downs in case he piped up again. Bride told me later she was afraid a brawl was going to break out. Ten years ago, that may have been a concern, but like Bill Munny, "I ain't a bad man no more." Ahem.

Speaking of brawling, would it have killed the film's producers to turn loose some Frankenbeasts for an action sequence towards the end? Honestly.

As far as geography goes, for the record, Richmond is kind of far from D.C. I guess they played fast and loose with geography in the T.V. show as well. That in no way explains why "West Virginia" seemed more like "Alaska."

As I type this I'm watching some reruns of classic episodes on TNT. Man, that show was something else in it's day. The concept still has some life in it, or it could if handled properly. Alas, I don't think this movie is going to bring in the casual moviegoers, and that's what this type of film needs in order to justify further installments, no matter how many rabid X-Filers are out there, and no matter how much that core group "wants to believe." Of course, the ridiculously long gap between the end of the show (whether you want to mark that at the conclusion of the ninth season or, *cough*, the seventh) and the release of "I Want To Believe" has apparently extinguished most of this cult's fervor. The Friday grosses were quite low, and having to compete with the juggernaut that is "The Dark Knight" can't help.

On opening day, this movie ranked well behind Batman 2 in it's second Friday of release (a ***** movie, by the way, in spite of all that "cellphone sonar" business), the Talladega Nights sequel (I know, I know, it isn't really . . . ), and that doggone Abba movie. I'm afraid this is the last time we'll see Mulder and Scully up on the screen, be it big, small, or in-between. That's a shame. If only Chris Carter had stepped into an executive producer role, and let some young gun with a fresh vision and a better understanding of how to make a big-screen, franchise-reviving spectacle take the reins, we may have been able to look forward to many more installments in this venerable franchise. Instead of turning Fox Mulder's religion into a crusade, this film will likely lock the cabinet on the X-Files forever.

I personally give it ***1/2 for fans, and *1/2 for reg'lar folks.

***UPDATE!***
Monday, 28 July, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Looks like the movie cleared just north of $10 million over the weekend. With a $30 million production budget, plus who knows how many more millions for marketing, X-Files 2 is almost certainly a prize-A turkey. They're going to have to move a whole crap-ton of dvds to drive this bad-girl into profitability. Ouch.

Bale beats his ma?

Wouldn't that be a great name for a band?

More on this at www.wwtdd.com, an excellent blog for those who appreciate a healthy dose of snark in their celebrity news.

So it sounds like this isn't a case of possible physical assault, but "verbal" assault. "Verbal" assault is a crime in the U.K.? I bet it isn't in Ireland. They'd have to turn the whole island into a prison, and not even a "clone prison" like in the movie "The Island," which, like Mark from 2IGTV.com, I quite liked.

Apparently, Bale lost his cool over some comments his mother made about his wife, who was STANDING RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE TIME. What a set of stones on Momma Bale, I tell you. Still, I'd about as soon brand my tongue with a hot poker as curse at MY momma, but then, I'm from the American South, and am a huge "momma's boy." Maybe that's just how they roll in jolly old England these days . . .

They say C.B.'s been upset since the death of his friend Heath Ledger, and has become sullen and withdrawn. I had a similar reaction to the death of Bert Convey . . .