Girl on the Train

I was skeptical watching this one since I hadn't read the book and it was in the 50's on Rotten Tomatoes, but I persevered. I'm a big Emily Blunt fan and I knew the book was a huge hit. The premise is a woman rides a train, OBVIOUSLY, but the train goes past her old house where her husband currently lives with his new wife and child. She stares out the window at them, but also their neighbor, a young beautiful woman who was recently married. She begins to feel like she's a part of their lives. She watches them and fabricates stories in her mind. The movie then starts being told from the "other" women's point of view. Her husband's new wife and the hot neighbor. The story boils over when the gorgeous neighbor is murdered and the "train lady" saw her with a mysterious man who wasn't her husband that day. Further complicating things is that train lady is a drunk who rides the train only to appear to be employed to appease her "roommate", aka lady letting her live with her. The story unfolds and new details are introduced slowly, but it weaves an interesting web that ties together well. It's very mysterious, so I don't want to talk about the plot much, but it has excellent performances by Blunt, Haley Bennett, Justin Theroux, and Luke Evans. Bottom Line: 7.5 out of 10. I was a bigger fan than I expected. I can imagine if someone read the book they may not enjoy the film since the book would do a much better job of unveiling things and explaining emotions and thoughts.

Hacksaw Ridge

I came it with fairly low expectations for Hacksaw Ridge. I'm not a big Andrew Garfield fan, so to have him playing an American war hero originally drew my ire. I was pleasantly surprised with his performance, it's very good, as are all of them. I really like Vince Vaughn, and Sam Worthington is also very good. The film tells the story of Desmond Doss. Desmond is raised in the hill country of Virginia, so he's not a Rhodes Scholar. His father fought in WWI, or THE GREAT WAR as it's referred to as. He's played expertly by Hugo Weaving. His dad's a drunk from the fact that he's unable to come to grips with his friends dying in France. He has a brother, younger or older is never said, though they are close in age. Desmond falls in love with the nurse who draws blood at the nearby hospital (5 miles). After his brother enlists it's the final straw and he decides to enlist shortly after as a medic. He's interested in human anatomy, etc., and more importantly he refuses to kill another man, or even pick-up a weapon. This causes all sorts of issues during basic training, but after a court order and Brigadier General's note, he's set to head off to Okinawa. Okinawa was crucial, like all of the contested islands, to get within bombing distance of Japan. This movie was particularly meaningful as I watched it on Veterans Day. It helped remind me of how awful my Grandpa's role was in WWII. He was an "Island Hopper", a role that I used to explain as the beach landing of Saving Private Ryan, only in the Pacific islands. He suffered tremendously with what he saw, did, and experienced. He left with a full head of hair and came back bald. His unit had a survival rate of between 10-15%. The Pacific Islands were definitely one of Dante's Spheres of Hell. Something that even after watching Hacksaw Ridge, which from what I can tell is the most accurate depiction of what happened in the Pacific Islands regularly, you can't possibly grasp the true horror of what occurred regularly. Getting back to the movie, what happens on Hacksaw Ridge is after a push to secure a good part of the "Ridge" the Japanese burrow underground for the night. At first light they charge and force Doss' unit off the Ridge, leaving many men wounded on the Ridge while battleships bombard it. Doss works tirelessly throughout the day and night to lower wounded troops down the cliff to safety all while being unarmed. It's totally amazing. The sum total of his efforts produces 75 wounded men lowered to safety. I'm not certain if all survived, etc., but that's a gargantuan effort for a group of medics, but Herculean for one man. Bottom Line: 8.6 out of 10. Believe the Rotten Tomatoes scoring, it's another rock solid movie from Mel Gibson, that crazy racist drunk.

Sorry, but Another Sharp Departure From the Norm

Today, and I'm not sure why, I'm compelled to make a sharp turn from my normal talk of movies and television to talk about people that I'm in awe of and that I admire greatly. There are certain professions that amaze me, and today I'm going to dive into one of them that I feel like deserves tremendous praise. This isn't to say there are numerous other roles in our society that deserve me recognition, but today I'm focusing on the role of the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) nurse. My sister-in-law made a life change seven years ago that I was in awe in. She took herself out of working for a company that managed very large retirement accounts (similar to a hedge fund) and decided to go back to school for a nursing degree. I feel like that profession is a calling, not a choice, and her decision perhaps even more than an amazing and incredibly admirable career in nursing. She works in a PICU unit that sadly often sees tragedy more often than many other units. Children (anyone under the age of 18) that has severe "issues" because I'm not sure how to define the "regular" case they deal with, are assigned to this particular unit. NICU is also an amazing profession too, but I'm focusing on PICU for now, though I greatly respect the people that work in the health care profession. I try to talk about her "job" that deals with tragedy that would probably cripple most people. An example, that is far from ordinary, but is the type of "case" they deal with would be a child that has a skin condition that prevents any physical contact. Hours are spent changing bandages because their skin blisters and bleeds with the contact of even gauze bandages, yet those bandages need to be changed at least daily despite the pain it causes. They are responsible for providing care and I'll go as far as saying love to those tough cases. I can't possible imagine going to work on a daily basis with the knowledge that patients in my care might not see tomorrow, or the next week or month. I'm in absolute awe and in total admiration of the amazing fortitude and resolve that those people show on a daily basis. I can't imagine the difficult moments and conversations had within that wing that occur regularly. I am so appreciative of the people who go to work knowing that their worst case is tragedy, yet they face it with such courage and compassion that it is totally amazing. I sincerely hope that nobody I know would ever deal with a situation that their child may be one of those cases, but I also want to highlight how amazing the people are that are on the front lines of such tragedy. If anyone knows someone that's amazing in a similar way, please reach out and share your thoughts and admiration with that person. Thank you for allowing me to share my heart today with you.