With a few exceptions I didn’t pay much attention to Amy Winehouse’s music; I worked with someone who did a great job of the first few lines of Rehab, and I have the Duets CD where she sang with Tony Bennett. It was hard not to follow the troubles she had at the end of her life. This documentary uses film footage taken of Amy from a very early age until just before her death.

There is no doubt she lived a troubled life; her early years weren’t happy ones and she says several times that she wouldn’t be able to handle fame. Someone (her parents, her managers) should have been watching out for her rather than trying to cash in on her fortune. I didn’t see her father’s name in the credits and I sincerely hope he didn’t make a dime off this movie.

I’m not a big fan of Russell Crowe but I enjoyed this his first directorial attempt. Crowe plays an Australian farmer who is able to find water in the middle of nowhere. His wife is grief stricken over the loss of her three sons four years earlier in the Battle of Gallipoli. After his wife’s suicide he travels to Turkey to bring the bones of his children back to rest with their mother.

Watching this film, set during the First World War, made me realize that there is a lot of history that I am clueless about. I doubt I’ll read up on much of it so I depend on the authenticity of this type of movie to educate me.

Bill Bryson (played by Robert Redford) decides to walk the Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles stretching from Georgia to Maine) after attending the funeral of a friend. He makes calls to several of his friends but no one will go with him. An old college buddy (Nick Nolte) hears about the plan and calls to say he will go along. A more unlikely pair of hikers would be hard to find. The scenery is beautiful and there are many laughs along the way.

The movie is based on Bill Bryson’s book of the same name. Both Pat and I have been aware of Bill Bryson as an author, and I think we’ll start looking for some of his books.

I laughed, I cried but in the end I wasn’t satisfied. I understand, and sometimes enjoy, a movie that doesn’t have a particular story, but I like an ending to my films.

Blythe Danner plays a widow who is  surviving, but not thriving, after the death of her husband (20 years ago) and the more recent death of her dog. The entire cast is excellent and I loved the group of ladies she played Bridge with. There are surprises along the way, but it felt incomplete.