Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Kiki’s Delivery Service and a Comfy, Cozy Giveaway

October 3, 2024October 3, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 5 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are watching Comfy, Cozy movies this September and October and this week we watched Kiki’s Delivery Service, a Studio Ghibli animated movie.

We are also announcing a very fun and exciting giveaway for a comfy, cozy gift basket which you can enter to win at the giveaway link at the bottom of this post!

Kiki’s Delivery Service was released in 1989 in Japan by Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese animator and filmmaker, and was based on a book called Witches Express Delivery Service.

The movie was animated by Studio Ghibli (which Miyazaki was a founder of) for Tokuma Shoten, Yamato Transport, and the Nippon Television Network.

According to information online, “The English dub was produced by Streamline Pictures for Japan Airlines international flights in 1989. Walt Disney Pictures produced an English dub in 1997, which became the first film under a deal between Tokuma and Disney to be released in English. It was released to home media in 1998.”

This was a very sweet movie with little action but a lot of heart.

First the background – Kiki is a witch and the tradition is that witches leave home at the age of 13 and travel away from their family for a year to learn what their skill in life is.

Kiki’s mother insists she take her old, reliable broomstick so Kiki flies off into the night with her all black cat JiJi and finds a small town to settle in. She ends up living with a baker and starts a delivery service – delivering packages with the use of her broom.

The bakery is owned by Osono and her husband, Fukuo, who are expecting a child.

Kiki also meets a friend – a boy named Tombo who wants to be her friend more than she wants to be his for most of the movie. Tombo likes to invent things – especially things with the potential to fly. At one point he invites Kiki to his aviation club but Kiki gets wrapped up in deliveries and gets caught in a rainstorm. This causes her to become very sick but Osono nurses her back to health and then pretends to have a delivery sent to Tombo so Kiki can see him and apologize.

During her first delivery, Kiki loses the toy she’s supposed to deliver and then she and her cat – who talks by the way – work to find a way to get it back to the child it belongs to.

Much of the movie is like this – just little stories or adventures that aren’t very exciting in some ways, but are calming and sweet.

It isn’t until more than halfway through the movie that more conflict arises because Kiki seems to be losing her powers, which she first notices when she can no longer understand JiJi.

Studio Ghibli is the design studio for many Japanese animated movies. Later many of these movies are dubbed into English and sometimes feature well-known American actors. In the one I watched (which was the Disney dubbed one from 1997) Kiki was voiced by Kiersten Dunst and the cat was voiced by Phil Hartman.

Kiki’s Delivery Service focuses on themes of independence and finding your place in this world.

It was the first Studio Ghibli film to find commercial success soon after being released – earning $31 million.

I wasn’t as swept up in this one as in previous Studio Ghibli films but as it continued it grew on me. It was a very quiet film and some of the Studio Ghibli films have a little more action so I wasn’t ready for it to be so toned down. Once I got into the story, though, I enjoyed it. The scenery and art, as in all Studio Ghibli films, was really beautiful.

I was rooting for Kiki – especially once she lost her powers and seemed confused about her next step.

While the makers of the movie and critics said the movie focuses on themes of maturity and independence, I also saw a strong theme of friendship, family, and trust.

Have you ever seen this one? What did you think?

Read Erin’s impressions of the movie here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2024/10/03/comfy-cozy-cinema-kikis-delivery-service/

Coming up next week will be the 1945 version of Blithe Spirit.

Feel free to link up your own impressions of the movies at our link-ups. The links close at the end of the week but feel free to leave your blog post on future link-ups, even if it is for another movie.

Also, Erin and I are announcing our Comfy, Cozy Gift Basket Giveaway today.

I’m just going to copy what Erin wrote to share here because I am lazy *wink*: “We have some fun little goodies to be sent off to one winner, with more surprises to be added as well! We want to celebrate the season and this is just one way we would like to do that this year.

You can enter anytime between today and October 15th, and the winner will be announced on our blogs on Thursday, October 17th. Please enter via Rafflecopter and it is only open to those 18 or older living in the US.” You can enter here: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/3614a4fa2/?

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: What We Did On Our Holiday

September 5, 2024September 11, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 5 Comments

Last year Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I watched comfy cozy movies during the fall and we are doing it again this year.

This week we watched What We Did On Our Holiday (2014).

I wasn’t sure what to expect of this one but chose it based on the trailer I saw of it. I thought it would be cozy and fun. I should have read the descriptions better since it is called a “black-comedy.” Oops.

So, it wasn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be, but it was a pretty okay movie, with humor mixed in with …. well…. some disturbing elements. Not like deep, deep dark disturbing – just a bit depressing disturbing. Yet also uplifting. It is hard to explain unless you see the movie. I’m handling this post with care because while I want to share one of the biggest plot twists in the movie, I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who hasn’t seen it.

So let’s keep it simple for now – David Tennant (Doug) and Rosamund Pike’s (Abi) character are getting a divorce but they are also going to visit Doug’s family and don’t want them to know about the divorce. Doug and Abi live in England. Doug’s family is Scottish (David is actually Scottish too so he got to use his normal accent this time). They instruct their young children to keep it on the down-low that Mum and Dad are living in separate houses and have lawyers.

Well, we, of course, know that this is going to go off the rails pretty fast with these precocious, bright children the couple has.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, Doug’s brother, Gavin (Ben Miller), is planning a huge party for their father. He’s inviting all kinds of bigwigs and other family members that no one but him wants there. His wife is inching toward menopause or is just stressed from dealing with him, and is having a hard time controlling her emotions so she’s crying in the kitchen some nights.

Their son seems to be a bit awkward but also might be autistic and he wants to play the music he loves on his violin but his father wants him to study classical music for college.

Oh and Gavin is rich. Very rich. Because he is a financial something or other which sounded like he’s a conman to me.

The kids in this film are – as the British might say – brilliant. They are hilarious and bright and quick witted. Great actors for being so young.

There are two girls and a boy. The youngest (between 4 and 5) reminds me of a mix of my daughter and one of my nieces – mouthy and sharp in the best way.

The oldest daughter (about 10) records all her thoughts in a little journal to try to organize them and deal with the chaos happening around her.

The boy (around 7) lives in fantasy worlds in a way, but he’s also a kid so it’s okay for him to do that.

According to an article I read, the kids were essentially let loose and the adults worked around the things they would said. You can read more about how the kids and the cast grew a bond to make the movie seem more natural here: https://weminoredinfilm.com/2015/10/13/film-review-what-we-did-on-our-holiday-aka-british-kids-say-the-darndest-things/

There is a lot of serious subject matter in this movie but the humor that is woven throughout helps to alleviate that some.

I have to admit there were times I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry at the scenes in this movie. I think there was a healthy mix of both, to the point the kids had to check if I was okay.

It isn’t much of a spoiler to say that Grandpa (Billy Connelly) is sick and one reason Doug and Abi don’t want anyone to know they are getting a divorce is that they don’t want to upset Gordie/Grandpa.

There is a huge plot twist in the middle of this one that had me gasping, saying, “oh no. No way,” crying, and then laughing.

I wouldn’t say this is a movie I will watch over and over again because it was tough in a lot of ways – especially since I have parents who are older and dealing with health issues themselves. I would probably watch it again with a family member (not alone like this time) while holding on to my Teddy bear and a box of tissues, though.

When I say a box of tissues, don’t jump to the conclusion that this movie doesn’t offer some hope. It does and that hope is for all of us with dysfunctional families who are trying to figure out what being a “normal” family is.

The kids really make this film – overshadowing Tennant and Pike for me. In fact, they overshadowed all the “big name” actors in the film. I found the adult actors’ performances to be pretty blah in many ways.

This movie sat with me a few days after I watched it and I found myself thinking about some of the scenes and tearing up again.

I definitely felt this film had to have been filmed in Scotland and a quick look online showed that it was actually filmed in – Detroit?!

Ha! Just kidding. It was filmed in Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands in 2013.

According to Wikipedia, “The beach scenes were filmed at Gairloch. The family home of Gavin McLeod is in Drymen near Loch Lomond. The ostriches farmed by Gordie’s friend Doreen are actually located at Blair Drummond Safari Park.

Have you ever seen this one before? What did you think?

Read Erin’s impressions on her blog here.

Up next for our Comfy, Cozy Cinema is The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

If you want to watch this one with us we will be posting our impressions next week.

Here is our full list for the entire Comfy, Cozy Cinema feature this year:

You can read Erin’s impression of the movie here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2024/09/05/comfy-cozy-cinema-what-we-did-on-our-holiday/

Link up here if you’ve written about the movie this week.

February Favorites: movie impression of Amelie

February 15, 2024 / Lisa R. Howeler / 6 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I had planned to write about our favorite movies this month and then she took a blogging break and it was a break that I realized I needed to because I’ve been spreading myself way too thin lately.

Erin has mentioned the movie Amelie a few times in the last year or so as being one of her favorite movies so this past weekend I suggested that I watch it since she was already watching it with her hubby and that we write about it today.

She, of course, readily agreed.

Amelie, for those not familiar, is a French film – so yes, I had to read subtitles because I am not fluent in French. It is about a young waitress who was raised by introverted parents who thought she was sick as a child and kept her inside most of her life. It was released in 2001 and the full name of the movie in France is The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain. Audrey Tautuo plays Amelie. It is directed by Jean Pierre Jeunet.

When she grows up she is very imaginative and begins to work behind the scenes to improve the lives of others. In the process, she might even improve her own. She begins to help others to combat her own loneliness.

This is a very quirky film with quirky camera angles and quirky writing and acting. Quirky is not a bad term in my book, in case you are wondering. I am a fan of quirky.

What is quirky about the film?

The writing, the camera angles, as I mentioned above and in how the narrator talks in present tense for part of the movie and then Amelie breaks the third wall to talk to us about her life in just one scene and then it is back to the narrator. I love when movies break “the rules” so to speak and breaking the third wall is one of those ways. If you don’t know what breaking the third wall means, it is when a character looks directly at the camera and speaks to the audience.

The movie features beautiful, vintage scenery throughout. The backgrounds are picturesque in an urban art style and the entire movie has a slight yellow tone like vintage film to give it a warm feeling. The main colors in the film (green, yellow, and red) are inspired by the paintings of the Brazilian artist Juarez Machado, according to IMDb.

Stories weave in and out of the main narrative of Amelie’s life, starting with her search to find the owner of a small box of mementos she finds in the wall in her bathroom and continuing when she works to return a book of photos from photo booths around the city so she can meet the man who collects the photos.

Each story is a life that Amelie touches and improves and each time she feels more alive and less isolated. Each character she interacts with is also strange and a bit eccentric, and the camera angles exaggerate these facts and the intricacies of Amelie’s imagination. She works to improve the lives of everyone around her, including her father who she encourages to travel the world by sending him photographs of his gnome in different locations around the world.

Eventually, helping others will inspire her to bring happiness to her own life.

There is only one person whose life she sort of messes with as revenge, but he deserves it. Trust me. And harassing him helps to improve the life of another person so it sort of evens out.

According to a couple of sources online, Jeunet said he originally wrote the role of Amélie for the English actress Emily Watson. Watson didn’t speak strong French, however, and then she started shooting Gosford Park instead. Jeunet then rewrote the screenplay for a French actress. The film was shot in Paris for the most part with some studio shots filmed in Germany.

Tautou was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Actress for her role. She was 24 when the film was released.

Trivia on IMbD states that graffiti and trash had to be cleared from shots in Paris to keep the film’s fantastical feeling. This was sometimes a difficult task for staff.

Amelie has a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a good thing if you don’t know. People love it, in other words. The movie was made into a musical on Broadway in 2015 and it was rereleased this year in theaters for Valentine’s Day. I have no idea if the musical was any good or not.

The movie is definitely fantastical – and a bit bizarre in places, to me, but not so bizarre that it’s creepy. More like whimsical bizarre. Not sure if that makes sense to some but it does in my brain.

One review I read of this on Rotten Tomatoes summed up some of my feelings about the movie: “I feel like it’s a beautiful love letter to the introverts out there with wonderfully magical imaginations who find it hard to connect to people in real life.”

This was a unique film that I don’t think I would have watched on my own, or discovered at all if it wasn’t for Erin’s suggestion. I will warn anyone offended by some sex and language, that this is a rated R movie. Neither is extreme but it still resulted in a R rating.

I know Erin will have a lot more to share about it in her post, which you can find here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2024/02/15/february-favorites-movie-thoughts-amelie/

Have you ever seen Amelie? What was your impression of it?

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Wildcard movie. The Lightkeepers

October 5, 2023October 5, 2023 / Lisa R. Howeler / 10 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are taking a break from our joint Comfy, Cozy Cinema this week, instead both choosing our own movies to watch and write about. We will be back next week with …. Which I hope you will all join us in watching and blogging about. We will have a way for you to link up if you are joining in.

This week I decided to write about a cute movie I started a few weeks ago and forgot to finish – The Lightkeepers.

This was a film that was released in 2009 and starred Richard Dreyfus, Blythe Danner, Bruce Dern, Tom Wisdom, Mamie Gummer, and Julie Harris.

The film is set in Cape Cod, 1912 and tells the story of a lightkeeper and a young man who washes ashore and becomes the lightkeeper’s assistant.

Seth Atkins, the lightkeeper, is a very abrasive and cantankerous character and while I kept expecting him to soften up during the movie he really didn’t for most of it. That irked me a bit only because I wanted to slap him more than once for his behavior. At the same time I liked that he stayed the same and didn’t change simply to make the movie more comfortable to watch. Seth’s character did make me uncomfortable because of his bluntness, but that’s what made him – well, him.

The story was fairly simple with a fairly weak plotline, but it was still sweet. I fell in love with the subdued nature of Tom Wisdom who played Mr. Brown/Russell Brooks and couldn’t help but root for him to find some happiness.

I needed Seth to find some happiness as well since he seemed like such a grump. I knew that deep down he really wasn’t though.

Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Atkins are self-proclaimed women-haters and the movie starts out with Mr. Atkins telling his former assistant how much he hates women. In fact, he tells anyone who will listen that he hates women.

This becomes an issue when two women come from Boston to stay at the cottage down the hill from the lighthouse. He wants nothing to do with them and warns Mr. Brown away from them as well.

Staying away isn’t easy when they call for help on their first day there because there are bees inside the cottage. It also isn’t easy when the young woman, Ruth, decides to go swimming and invites a brooding Mr. Brown to go in with her. He reluctantly does and a friendship develops. It’s a friendship he does his best to keep a secret from Mr. Atkins since he agreed to stay away from women while working for him.

Incidentally, Mr. Brown arrived at the lighthouse when Mr. Atkins found him washed up on shore. Mr. Brown/Russell has a very distinct and proper British accent and it’s clear right away he doesn’t have a clue how to work with his hands or really work at all. He does his best, however, to become a real workman and as the movie progresses, we find out why he was in the ocean, why he wants to work hard, and why he “hates” women.

This was a very light watch and a nice escape for a couple of hours. I rented it through Amazon but I am sure it is available other places as well – maybe even your local library. (Update: Elizabeth let me know in the comments it is currently free on Tubi, with ads but still free).

Have you ever seen The Lightkeepers?

Next week Erin and I will return with The Lady Vanishes.

If you want to watch it as well and then blog your impressions, please do.

Here is the rest of our schedule for October and November:

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

A break for Thanksgiving

And

Sense and Sensibility (November 30^th)

Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The Secret World of Arrietty

September 14, 2023September 14, 2023 / Lisa R. Howeler / 2 Comments

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

This week we had a double-feature. Erin chose Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty. I had never watched either of them. I love how Erin pulls me out of my comfort zone and introduces me to knew things.

The Secret World of Arrietty is a Studio Ghibli film.

Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio for those of you who are like me and have no idea.

I honestly didn’t understand what Studio Ghibli was until Erin talked about it and then my son wanted me to watch Howel’s Castle with him a couple of months ago. These are animated films made in Japan and later dubbed into English to watch in the United States. Or you can watch the Japanese version and read the subtitles. The movies have become very popular and big-name actors are now being used to voice the American versions.

The movies from Studio Ghibli are often quirky and fantastical, strange but also poignant. They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and I honestly had no interest in watching one until The Boy suggested it and then Erin said she wanted to watch this one.

I ended up liking Arrietty more than I expected.

As my son said, “I can see why she likes this movie so much. It’s just really creative and cool.”

And it was.

Arrietty and her family members are very tiny people – like two inches high, not like the cast of TLCs Little People, Big World (who are actually called little people and who I am almost as short as).

It is similar to The Borrowers, the book and movie, and is actually the inspiration for the movie.

The movie has a very, cozy feel to it . . . until you realize the stinking ants are bigger than the people and can eat them. Ack!

This isn’t essential to the movie, but I love Arrietty’s outfits…she’s so cute. I want to be cute.

The Boy commented on how he likes how the studio pays such attention to details, including using the wood staples as the ladder.

The movie starts with a human family coming to a new house. We are clued in very quickly that the young boy is sick for some reason – something with his heart.

The young boy sees Arrietty in the bushes when he first arrives but she runs away.

Later that day her father agrees to let her come with him when he goes into the house of the beans (which is what they call humans) to borrow items, such as a sugar cube and a pin, that they can use. This is Arrietty’s first time helping her father borrow and she’s nervous but excited. She’s even more nervous when the boy spots her again and this time, he speaks to her and tells her not to be afraid.

She isn’t afraid but she and her dad quickly leave without speaking to the boy.

The next day the boy leaves the sugar cube Arrietty accidentally dropped in his room to try to get to know her.

Her parents, however, tell her to stay away from the boy, afraid traps will be set for them and that they will be killed.

Of course, Arrietty doesn’t listen to her parents because if she did then there wouldn’t be a movie.

She does go to meet the boy – whose name is Shawn – and is almost killed by a crow. Luckily, Shawn rescues her.

They don’t talk much but later Shawn’s aunt shows him a dollhouse that his mother made with her father for the Borrowers to use. The Borrowers never came, though, and this made the mom sad. Shawn knows that the little family would love the kitchen so he takes it from the dollhouse, rips up the floor and practically gives them a heart attack by giving them the kitchen.

This traumatizes the family and Arrietty’s father says they have to leave so they won’t be chased out, trapped or killed.

Shawn likes to say uncomfortable and awkward things like the antagonist in any anime film, The Boy says.

He says things like, “There’s less and less of you every year, isn’t there?” and “We can’t all live forever.”

The Boy said, “Bro’s got that unsocial riz, doesn’t he?”

So while Shawn is not a threat to the Borrowers, the housekeeper, voiced by Carol Burnett, totally is. For some reason, she wants to find and destroy The Borrowers. I don’t get what her behavior is about at all but she’s creepy as anything.

This, yet again, isn’t related to the overall plot of the movie but the beds these characters have look so comfortable. There is a lot of cozy feelings to this movie overall.

I won’t give away what happens to the family or the boy but I was so nervous for them throughout the movie.

I will comment on one thing about these movies though – the voice actors don’t emote very well sometimes so the characters end up giving very weird and monotone effects to the line delivery. For example, there are times when they should be alarmed but instead, they respond in a very monotone way and it makes the kids and I giggle. Little Miss does an amazing imitation of those moments when the characters deliver bored sounding responses to otherwise alarming situations.

I am not complaining about the sometimes monotone delivery, but just commenting on how it is just a little odd quirk of the movies when they are dubbed. An odd quirk that makes us giggle.

You can read Erin’s impression here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/09/14/comfy-cozy-cinema-the-secret-world-of-arrietty/

Next up for our movie-watching feature is The African Queen.

Our schedule for the rest of the series (the dates are when we are writing about them):

Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

The Fishermen’s Friends (November 16)

November 23 off for Thanksgiving

November 30^th? Wildcard at this point because we shifted things around and are short a movie! Oops! We will update

‘Tis The Season Cinema: The Man Who Invented Christmas

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022 / Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are starting a feature today where we will share our impressions of Christmas movies, in the same way we did for Halloween movies and the summer classic movies. Yes, we are starting this early at the risk of offending all the Christmas purists who believe you can not watch Christmas movies before December 1. One of those people is my son who showed me this meme when I told him what we were doing:

Anyhow….I digress:

This week we are kicking things off with the origin of the definitive Christmas story (other than the real reason for the season, Christ’s birth) through the movie The Man Who Invented Christmas.

Off the topic (again), but while looking for the movie on Amazon, a ton of movies that started with three words, The Man Who… popped up and made me realize that’s either a very popular title or a very lazy one.

The movie starts with an elated Charles Dickens (Dan Stevens) who is in America, riding the wave of success of Oliver Twist. Within minutes, though, we are tossed into the future where Charles has just had three books flop.

He’s toured Britain and America and been celebrated in the past but now he is home and has what every writer dreads: writer’s block.

He needs a hit, not only for his ego but to pay for all the renovations at his home and to support his growing family.

Did you know that Dickens had 10 children? Because before watching this movie I didn’t either. I looked it up and found some other unpleasant behaviors of his, which was sad, but he was still a fascinating man.

Okay, back to the movie.

His publishers are ready to toss him out on his ear, but his agent suggests they keep him on if he writes a new book. The publishers are excited. Of course they will keep him on if he’s going to write them a new book they tell his agent.

The problem? Charles doesn’t even have an idea for a new book.

Bring in the new housemaid who begins telling stories that ignite his imagination and inspire him to tell the story of a selfish, bitter old man who begins to — quite literally — come alive in his mind.

He decides it will be a Christmas book but it’s halfway through October. “There isn’t time to write and publish a book and market it by Christmas,” they tell him.

He’s left to pay for the book on his own. Pay for it and write it at the same time his estranged father arrives for a visit.

This is the father whose debts left 12-year-old Charles working in a shoe factory to pay off those debts.

His relationship with his manipulative father weighs heavily on his writing of this new book which he eventually titles A Christmas Carol.

This movie takes the viewer on a delightful journey and you don’t have to be a writer to relate to the many interruptions he faces as he tries to write, but being one makes it even more relatable.

The insane creativity of this movie is what drew me in. Watching the characters appear in Dickens’ world as he writes them is fascinating for someone who also writes fiction and experiences characters come alive in my brain. Dickens also draws from his own life to craft his stories, which is again something I can also relate to. The way Charles lives his life with all his characters following him along each step of the way isn’t a far-fetched concept for writers who have done the same, though probably never finding as much success as Dickens and looking even crazier than he did.

My son tells me I’m borderline insane because I have a bunch of people living in my brain and sometimes I talk to them. He is, of course, joking. I think. He’d better be since he talks to the characters in his video games like they are real.

Scrooge (Christopher Plummer) wakes Charles at one point during the night in the movie and I had to laugh because that is when all the best ideas come for writers — when they’d rather be sleeping or need to be doing something else. I often feel like a character is whispering in my ear as I try to drift off, saying things like, “Hey, about that conversation I shared earlier, I forgot to tell you part of it. Can you just get up and write that part down so it’s accurate? That would be great.”

There is a great deal of sadness in the movie as Charles uncovers his own demons at the same time he uncovers Scrooge’s, but there is also incredible hope as he works to push his past heartache and bitterness to the side and find happiness in his life.

“I’m afraid,” he tells his friend/agent.

“What have you got to be afraid of?” the friend asks.

“That if I can’t finish it, I’ll never write again,” he responds.

It was a true fear for Charles, but ultimately unwarranted as he went on to write ten more novels, other novellas and short stories, including Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and David Copperfield.

Read Erin’s impression of the movie on her blog.

If you’d like to join us in this seven-week feature at any point, you can do so. Here is our list of upcoming movies (the dates are when we plan to publish our blog posts):

Nov. 17 A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong

Nov. 24: White Christmas

Dec. 1: Muppets Christmas Carol

Dec. 8: Holiday Inn

Dec. 15: It’s A Wonderful Life

Dec. 22: Charlie Brown Christmas and Emmett Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas