Some films seen recently

It's nearly two weeks ago now, but a fellow DSoc person and sort-of colleague, previously mentioned in these pages by her initials, but whom I'll now call Ceollass, and I went to see Serenity during its second circuit run at the UPP. It's still an admirable film, though I now have an altered perspective from having watched the entire series of Firefly. The space battle above Miranda, which I had thought blended battle action and character drama, now seemed more orthodox, and I was surprised at how much the rescue scene at the beginning of the film now allowed Simon to know about River's condition. Perhaps I had taken Simon's apparent ignorance of what caused River's madness too much on trust - and not taken into account the implications of some of what I think we learned in 'Ariel'.

The next day I was in London, where I saw Walk the Line with my mother and sister. A glance at the internet suggests that this is part of a wider campaign to exploit the back catalogue by the suddenly aptly-named Cash estate. Nonetheless, it's a very good film that will probably carry off a few Academy Awards. Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix are immersed in their characters; it's difficult to recognise them from any of their other films, so submerged are their star personas in those of June Carter and Johnny Cash. The acclaim masks that it's something of a fan film; there are scenes which require the foreknowledge that June Carter wrote the song 'Ring of Fire' (which will be the title of the official bio-musical of Cash, opening on Broadway later this year) about her growing realisation that she was in love with Johnny Cash. As a 2006-friendly story of self-discovery and self-reinvention it's unsurprising that this film is going far this year.