And one man in his time plays many parts

Haven't really been in a movie-watching mood lately. What with going back and forth between the hospital to visit Grandpa and various meetings for work and volunteer stuff and dinner and drinks with friends, there hasn't really been time.

But I did manage to watch Intermission the other day. I think it's the first movie I've seen where Colin Farrell doesn't fake an American accent. It was a short, quirky film, and I liked it well enough. The movie follows about a dozen different, intersecting stories of couples or friends or coworkers. Overall, I think it was a movie about expectations, either ones that people have of themselves or each other. There are several couples who, for various reasons, break up, and the newly single folks shuffle around into new couples that may or may not work out. There's the cop trying to prove himself, and the petty criminal trying to do the same. There are the grocery clerks who can never do good in the eyes of their boss. And best of all, there's the reality TV documentary producer, who tries to chronicle parts of these people's lives. I like the title because of its irony in light of the characters' troubles: there's no set script in life, so there's no intermission per se. At the same time, this is a film with a finite running time. A little surreal watching the stories play out and connect in bizarre ways, but definitely good.

And speaking of surreal, having a doctor tell seven family members in an ICU that they should consider taking their relative off all the machines because there's little hope definitely counts. The doctor seemed to have more trouble telling us we needed to consider it than we did discussing the matter. As I found out three months ago, I hate ICUs. Didn't think I'd have to visit one again so soon.