waking into a dream journal 12.09.07

this morning's dose of mild chuckling
the mesmerist
director: // 2001
cinema 4 rating: 5

someday, the world will stop making doogie howser, m.d. jokes, and admit as a group that neil patrick harris is, in the words of another how i met your mother character (though never used to actually describe harris' character) awesome -- awesome in everything except this -- he's still good here, and delivers the farcical material well, but seems strangely miscast -- i've seen some odd poe adaptations, but why someone didn't think of this before is beyond me -- the facts in the case of m. valdemar rewritten (and transfigured slightly) almost as a stage farce -- makes me wonder if this indeed had been produced on the stage originally, though the credits (as near as I can tell) do not betray this -- so, at least jessica capshaw is a better actress than her mother, which isn't saying much, but as daisy she looks the part of a virginal daddy's girl, and she has a good way with the pseudo-fifties semi-snobby dialogue -- interesting that harris almost seems to flinch when he has to kiss her, as if mentally crossing his fingers -- nice to see howard hesseman again, though since i have been watching wkrp lately, it's hard for me to see anybody but the good doctor -- the musical sequence sets up nicely, though the payoff is not what it should have been -- a quite clever idea, but done too small, should have gone for gloriously over-the-top in that bit, where the instrumentation gets ridiculously grand -- am i in love with jo champa as the italian housekeeper with the spanish name, consuela? -- maybe it's all of the giallo i have been watching lately -- consuela: we could have an orgy! dr. hoffler: oh, no, no, no. i was thinking more along the lines of a board game. consuela: we could have an orgy on a board! -- she can take me into her bosom anytime --

this morning's earworm: we stand a chance/baby we stand a chance / i could be wrong / but you never know / we could stand the chance of a real love (t. petty)