I have been watching, and fascinated, by Mrs. Fletcher, the mini series on HBO. I saw and wrote about the first episode, and I have only been enticed by it, binge-watching the rest of the episodes. I was engrossed and enthralled by it, by the story of Eve Fletcher, who suddenly finds herself caught in an empty nest after her son goes to college. I noted in the first episode that Eve instantly caught my empathy, after her son treats her like shot before leaving for college. Brendan, the son, finds himself in a uncomfortable environment now that he is away for school – he used to be the popular guy, the king of his high school, but now he has to find his way around his new environment. I found these two parallel stories very interesting, as they are both thrust into their respective situations and need to find their ways.
I just wish it ended with a little bit more clarity. It is structured with an open-ended finale, and I thought the series would be open-ended as well, but there doesn’t seem to be any plans for a second season. It kind of makes you ask – did they learn a lesson from whatever they went through? Brendan, in the final episode, walks in on his mother in bed with a young man and a woman, and it is the young man he used to bully when he was still in school. It would have been nice to see some kind of resolution on this – the story was framed with questions that are left unanswered. Some story lines were haphazardly set up – the trans teacher and her budding romance with a student, Eve;s friend going through marital problems – and we do not gleam any insight from them. I just feel like we should have been given an episode, or three, more to wrap everything up.
I have not read Tom Perrota’s novel ‘Mrs. Fletcher,’ but I am told it is about porn. So that has made me interested in the new HBO limited series ‘Mrs. Fletcher.’ You kind of do nto get that from the first episode of the show, which just sets up Mrs. Fletcher’s scenario. Played by Kathryn Hahn, who is almost always sensational, this Mrs. Fletcher is a sad sack of a mother, whose son is off to college, and the son is a huge ass-wipe, who has no manners, treats his mother – all women, actually – as crap. When she tearfully leaves him in college, he responds by wanting her out as soon as she can, and she is left with a bottle of rose and her laptop. You feel for Mrs. Fletcher at once, her situation is dire, and you know she is bound for some kind of awakening (from the looks of it, sexual) While I look forward to that, it also seems like her son Brendan is due for some kind of comeuppance when he is left in college, no longer the big and popular guy in school. I am immediately hooked in the show now, and look forward when porn comes in. Well, the idea of it in relation the series, anyway. I don’t think the show is one.
Tamara Jenkins’ ‘Private Life’ centers on a couple, Rachel and Richard, played by Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti, who has been trying to have a child and has been trying to explore all their options for it. But for me, the film is more than that – it is a character study of a certain type of New Yorkers – artistic city folks who are trying to find meanings in their lives, probably trying to search for happiness just like everyone else in the world. The movie is more an observation of manners, and int hat case it was interesting to watch also because of the authentic performances from both lead actors (Hahn is a force of nature)
‘Flower’ is one of those movies that I both like and hate. I like it because it is a wisecracking Indie movie, and tells a story inventively. It stars Zoe Dutch (mark my words, a star in the making) is Erica, a teenager who has the sweet face of a young Tea Leoni but a mouth like a sailor. She and her friends like to pal around and frame corrupt cops by having Erica give them oral pleasures while filming them, then blackmailing them for money. But Erica has a goal for that money, which is to bail out his father. She also has a nice friend-type relationship with her mother (Kathryn Hahn) but that relationship goes sour when she has her boyfriend and his son move in. The son is weird – he just got out of rehab and Erica has to babysit him.
Luha Thoughts 