Golden Compass

It was date night last night, and a bit of a belated celebration of our anniversary so my partner took me to dinner and the movies (she knows me so well). We went to see the Golden Compass. Now I am a massive fan of the books. They are breathtaking. Rarely have I felt such grief, joy, excitement and fear in reading, and the subtlety and depth of the books is incredible. So I was a bit nervous about seeing the film whilst at the same time, desperately curious. I'll get to the point shall I... the film is really good!

You have to accept that they are two different things, there is a lot that has to be missed out from the film otherwise we would still be watching this morning... but it was a fantastic spectacle. I really liked the casting as well, Dakota Blue was convincing as Lyra and Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulther was brilliant - in fact she was imspired! She was as beautiful, icey and as driven as she is in the book... Oscar methinks! And Iorek the ice bear (voiced by McKellan) was great. The CGI was something else worthy of Oscar attention. Daniel Craig is Lord Asriel. He is a brutish character prepared to let nothing and no one get in his way. We saw glimpses of that, but I don't think we'll really appreciate his character until the next film.

Anyway, well worth going to see but don't be a snob. Films and books are different beasts so go with an open mind and accept how much has to be left out and adapted for film.

Incidentally, we saw a clip for a new Jack Black film (Jack Black for President!) called - I think - 'Please be kind and Rewind'. It looked amazing and I was shaking with laughter just from the clip. The next must see!

We're decorating the tree today. Yeah!