acting my age

Most of the time, I don't truly act my age. I mean, on a "school night", I am usually in bed no later than 10:30pm....and head right home after work, etc. With an hour-and-a-half commute to work, getting home at 12:30am is just not an option.....unless you are me this past weekend. Sunday night, I ended up acting my age. I met a friend from AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy)for dinner and a movie. We started at a darling, delicious, cheap Chinese restaurant called Cottage on 77th and Amsterdam. The place was packed (at 5pm to boot!), so we finally sat down about 5:20 or so. After a wonderful meal (I did chicken with vegetables), we started to walk down towards the 68th street Loews in hopes of seeing the new animated feature HAPPY FEET. On the way, we walked past a store where a fellow AMDA alumna works, and coerced her to come with us. (While waiting, we jokingly were doing time steps to illustrate our happy feet, and these two guys walking by with dogs were about to join in. We laughingly apologized for cutting them off, and it turns out that one of the guys I went to Interlochen Arts Academy with like 12 years ago, and his friend is a dancer/choreographer. We heard what everyone was doing...and then continued on the HF journey.) We arrived at 68th street to find that the movie (on IMAX) was sold-out. So, we headed down to 42nd street and even 34th street to find all of the showings sold out. Our feet were definitely not happy after traipsing all over the city. [sigh] We headed back to 42nd street to see if we could get the next HAPPY FEET which was starting like an hour after that, only to find that that showing had sold out while we explored 34th street. After much discussion, we decided to see THE DEPARTED...the police/criminal drama from Martin Scorcese starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. Having prepared to see a movie about tap-dancing penguins....THE DEPARTED was quite a shock to the system. It was a very welcome one. Although this film is incredibly violent and gory, it is also so well made and just fascinating. The story centers on (the always fabulous) Jack Nicholson as a crime-leader in South Boston. He has one of his guys become a police officer (Matt Damon) to have eyes and ears in the precinct and keep the police out of his business. Meanwhile, rookie cop Leonardo DiCaprio goes undercover into Mr. Nicholson's gang and informs the police captain (Martin Sheen) of what is going on. The acting in this picture is phenomenal, most notably Leonardo DiCaprio who does a moving turn as a vulnerable guy trying to do right and keep his life at the same time. Well directed, well acted, gritty, dirty, and surprisingly funny....this movie is so well-done, and a must-see.

Final thoughts: If you are in the mood for tap-dancing penguins, this movie might not be for you...but for a portrait of crime and character, this is a real winner. Note: Um....this movie is very GORY...so eat your snacks during the previews.

photo credit: www.movieweb.com