Page 2 April 25, 2019
Entertainment
Check It Out
Film Review
A House Among the Trees
by Julia Glass
By Roz Templin, Library Assistant,
El Segundo Public Library
I’ve loved books all my life, really. Books
are friends. Books are collectibles. Books hold
endless hours of joy, suspense, compassion
… they enrich your life with knowledge,
empathy and imagination.
A House Among the Trees is packed with
everything a book lover could want : children’s
literature, the book publishing world,
museums, the worlds of film and art, scandal,
personal tragedy, personal accomplishment,
even thoughts about nature … It’s astonishing
how much detail is given to character, plot,
place and time (1970s through present day) .
Famous children’s author Mort Lear dies
unexpectedly from an accident at his home
in Connecticut, leaving his personal assistant
Tommy (Tomasina) to deal with what he
leaves behind. That includes complex wishes
in his will, previously unknown to her, that
she must carry out, as well as decide what
to do with the house he has left to her. Then
there is the film that is being made about
Mort’s life: English movie star Nicholas
Greene has been cast to portray Morty and
he is coming to “soak up” the atmosphere. A
museum curator is awaiting news of a possible
bequest of items from the late author/
artist. And if that wasn’t enough on Tommy’s
plate, she must plan a memorial tribute for
her employer that will take place at the Met.
Did I mention Tommy’s brother Dani, with
whom she has had a falling out?
Going back and forth through time, the
reader finds out how Tommy met the great
man and how she soon became indispensable
to him through the years. Tommy’s beginnings
are explored, including her relationship
with her “hippie” parents. Her father writes
and performs songs on the spot to describe
whatever is going on in their lives. The story
also reflects upon her younger brother Dani,
and her teenage and college years.
Other characters get their say. Merry, the
museum curator, was dazzled by Morty’s
charm and talent. She covets the original
drawings from his children’s books and
hopes to add them to her museum’s treasure
troves. In her memories, she describes lunches
with the author and the doodles he made on
napkins and bits of paper that immortalized
those times. The actor Nicholas Greene’s life
is explored and the reader discovers that Nick
has been corresponding with Mort via email.
A big secret is relayed that may impact the
direction of the film of Morty’s life.
In the audio version, Mary Stuart Masterson
has found Morty’s voice: New York-ese,
gravelly and warm, it’s a winning effort for
a female to capture a man’s voice to that
degree. She also easily makes Nick’s clipped
British accent sound realistic. In my daily
commutes to and from the library, books
on CD make it a much more agreeable time
on the freeways, especially one as addictive
as this one.
You can find this book available in print
and audio formats and more at the library.
Come and see our new look! •
Highlights from
the TCM Classic Film Festival
By H. Nelson Tracey
for www.cinemacy.com
Sgt. York
A Best Picture nominee in 1941, Sgt. York
was released weeks before Pearl Harbor
shocked Americans to the core and proved
to be the perfect picture for wartime inspiration.
The titular sergeant, played by Gary
Cooper, starts out as a country bumpkin from
Tennessee whose only pastimes are drinking
and shooting guns. We watch a character
transformation as York finds his way to religion
first, then a love of country brought
on by The Great War, and a call to arms in
which he must participate. It harkens back to
a time when patriotism had a much different
meaning and Americans were realizing just
how much their country as a whole meant
to them. It’s definitely a worthwhile watch
for a socio-political perspective, and a fairly
compelling look at an unexpected hero and
how he came to be such.
This TCM screening was made extra special
by being the inaugural screening at a brand
new movie venue: The Legion Theater at Post
43, a military club on Highland Avenue with
a spectacular new theater. In person was both
the son and grandson of Sgt. York, who have
served in the military themselves and actively
participate in sharing their father’s legacy.
Goodbye Mr. Chips
This unabashedly sentimental film is a
favorite of my dear grandma, and so I owed
it to her to finally check it out at this year’s
TCM festival. Mr. Chips (Robert Donat in
an Oscar-winning role) is an aging teacher
at a boys prep academy who has been at
the school so long he is its heart and soul.
Generations of teaching schoolboys have
made him wise and more than a tad eccentric
and we see how he became such a staple of
the school through flashbacks. Goodbye Mr.
Chips is a comedic, tragic and altogether
heart-warming motion picture. In the film’s
introduction, the speaker said to the packed
audience, “You either had a Mr. Chips in
your life, or you didn’t.” I was fortunate to
have a few “Chips” in my formative years
and suffice to say, the film is definitely a
touching reminder of the great educators
who helped us along the way.
Kind Hearts and Coronets
While today’s audiences may know Sir
Alec Guinness best for his role as Obi-Wan
Kenobi, in the mid-20th century he was a
star known for his zany comedy, the likes
of which included The Ladykillers, The
Man in the White Suit, and this film: Kind
Hearts and Coronets. The draw here is that
Guinness plays six different roles (eight
depending on how you count), each a snobbish
heir to a vast fortune and a target for
murder by a cunning heir further down in
the lineage. What we’re seeing is the initial
seeds of what would become a staple of
comedy: the multi-character routine seen
here appears to be a major inspiration for
Eddie Murphy and Mike Myers, among
others. The film’s darkly funny plot seems
to have influenced Sunset Blvd (which came
out the next year) and many other comedies
that deal with murder, money and family. In
person to introduce the film was Jefferson
Mays (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Inherent
Vice), who performed the same set of six-plus
roles on stage and described the countless
costume changes that sometimes were only
10 seconds long! This is a fun movie and
I’m sure seeing a stage version would be
equally entertaining.
For more TCM recaps and to watch a
day in the life video from the festival, visit
www.cinemacy.com •
Courtesy of John Nowak/TCM
H. Nelson Tracey.
“A film can open hearts and minds that have
been closed, for whatever reasons.”
– Vanessa Redgrave
A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass.
Roz Templin
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