Saturday, September 21, 2013

The Valley Wire - July 2013

Hollywood and the Great Escape
By Mary Beth Gentle

Hard work.  Long hours.  Too many Saturday morning little league games.  Whatever the reason may be, there comes a time that we all need a little escape at the end of the day.  For some of us that escape may be a night out on the town but for most of us it means curling up on the couch and settling in for a night in front of the Flat Screen.  Whether it be an old movie found while channel surfing, a new release streaming into your living room or an episode of a TV Favorite on your DVR; Hollywood makes it their business to provide you with the great escape. 

It may be more enlightening to come home from a long day of work or family wrangling and settle in with a classic novel or de-stress our lives with a little yoga but sometimes we just need to tune in and tune out.  I am not opposed to a good read or a little meditation but there are times when only Hollywood can provide the escape I need to shake off the day.  This past week my DVR provided me with quite a few options to escape my weary workday; a Cary Grant classic on TMC, a release from last year on Showtime and a new episode of summer television on the Syfy Channel. 

First up for my week of ‘couch potato’ time was the Cary Grant screwball comedy, My Favorite Wife.  Missing for seven years and presumed dead, a woman returns home on the day of her husband’s second marriage.  Cary Grant and Irene Dunn are the leads in this farce of concealed identities that takes you on a fun ride as the befuddled Cary Grant tries to untangle himself from a second marriage so he can reunite with his long lost love.  This one may not have been on the top ten list for screwball comedy greatness, but it provided the escape I needed and was a fun watch.



Next up in my weeks line up was last year’s underrated and subtle comedy-drama, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, staring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt.  The story centers on a fisheries expert (McGregor) who is approached by a consultant (Blunt) to help realize a sheik’s vision of bringing the sport of fly-fishing to the desert and embarks on an upstream journey of faith to achieve a seemingly impossible task.  I have to admit that the only thing that drew me to this one was Ewan McGregor, but I was pleasantly surprised by the charming and quirky if not low-key adventure.  The main characters are soon caught in political power struggles and complicated relationships as they take a leap of faith and discover a little romance on the way.

And finally, I took a little escape into a few new episodes of the summer Sci-fi Series, Warehouse 13.  This show is in its fifth season and if you haven’t caught any of it yet, it is worth adding to your viewing list.  The premise of the series focuses on a couple of US Secret Service agents assigned to retrieve lost supernatural objects and return them to a the highly secure warehouse at any cost.  It is Sci-fi at it’s best with likable characters in well crafted storylines involving supernatural artifacts that pose all kinds of disastrous threats to mankind.  Sounds a little far-fetched but trust me it’s worth the ride and is a great escape.

So, no matter how hard the week may seem or how impossible relaxing with good book feels, you can always pop some popcorn and settle in to enjoy a little bit of an escape that only Hollywood can provide.