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The Husband's Secret
The Husband's Secret
Liane Moriarty | 2013 | Fiction & Poetry
6
7.7 (31 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Husband's Secret focuses on three main characters. Cecelia Fitzpatrick, married to John-Paul with three beautiful daughters. Tess O'Leary who owns a business with her husband, Will and cousin, Felicity and has a son, Liam. And Rachel Crowley, who is still mourning the death of her daughter nearly 30 years after the fact. How do these women's lives intersect, well....Cecelia finds a letter from her husband, not to be opened until his death...she opens it anyway. Tess finds out that her husband and cousin(yes her business partners) have fallen in love with each other. So she takes her son and heads to Sydney and enrolls him in the school which, Rachel Crowley is the secretary and Cecelia is the mother all other mothers love and hate.

The news Cecelia finds in the letter, the thoughts Rachel has about her daughters killer, and the actions Tess take after leaving her husband would make for one exciting story.

I'm afraid this story feel short of the exciting mark. When I first picked it up and started reading, I was dying to find out what was in the letter, but I would have to wait for that. Once the secret was out, I wanted to know what was going to happen next, with everyone's story. But the excitement wasn't there. This wasn't a book, that I had to hurry to get back to, which was very disappointing. I couldn't abandon the book, though because I had to know.

Would Rachel find her daughter's killer? Would Cecelia be able to live with her husband's secret? Would Tess and Will be able to work through their marriage? But getting those answers was not page turning and gripping.

I gave the book three stars because the whole premise behind the book was good, I enjoyed the story as a whole, but there was too much in between the good parts. Don't tell me about a secret letter at the beginning of the story and take three days to tell me what was in it....it's not fair. And what was happening in those three days was not exciting enough to make me wait. The moments just before the opening were the most thrilling.

Don't know if I will read more from Ms. Moriarty or not.
  
Closed Circuit (2013)
Closed Circuit (2013)
2013 | Mystery
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
oday, we’re going to bring you something a little different from ‘across the pond’ in the form of the latest crime-thriller from

the United Kingdom ‘Closed Circuit’.

 

Directed by John Crowley, ‘Closed Circuit’ tells the story of a fictional terrorist attack on the city of London and it’s aftermath.

Staring Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall, Julia Stiles, Ciaran Hinds, and Jim Broadbent. ‘Closed Circuit’ follows two lawyers (Bana and Hall)

as they individually attempt to prepare the defense of their client, the lone suspect apprehended in the aftermath of the attack on a London market,

in most high profile criminal case in british history, They quickly learn though that all is not as it appears. As they discover they are being shadowed,

their every move monitored, and their pasts scrutinized, it soon becomes clear that no matter what the outcome of the trial is, it might not be

just their reputations that are on the line.

 

The movie is a fictional example of what unfortunately, has become almost commonplace in today’s world.

Terrorist attacks, manhunts, expanded surveillance, and it makes you ask yourself, Who is the biggest threat to us? Our enemies? Or those we trust

to defend us from our enemies?

 

‘Closed Circuit’ was well filmed and is cast be top-notch actors. However, once the movie gets past the very beginning it drags on for a while and has little

dialogue. Every line by the actors in the movie implies others hidden within others and is hard to follow sometimes unless you’re a conspiracy theorist.

I’d give the film 2 and a half out of 5 stars. It’s a good flick, don’t get me wrong. But it’s kind of a downer. Not exactly, an ‘escape’ from the summer heat.

Put it in in your queue for NetFilx.
  
The Goldfinch (2019)
The Goldfinch (2019)
2019 | Drama
The life of Theodore Decker (Ansel Elgort and Oakes Fegley) is for every changed when his mother is killed in an explosion at an art museum. In the same tragic moments when his mother is killed he also makes a decision that will help shape the rest of his life, he takes a rare and valuable painting in the chaos of surrounding. This painting, The Goldfinch, wasn’t something he planned on taking, but having it will be the only thing that brings him comfort in the days ahead. After the tragedy he is temporarily placed with a family he really enjoys. He has a best friend, Andy Barbour (Ryan Foust), and a mother figure in Mrs. Barbour (Nicole Kidman). Theodore also makes a connection to a girl Pippa (Aimee Laurence and later by Ashleigh Cummings) and her caretaker Hobie (Jeffrey Wright). Pippa and her uncle Welty (Robert Joy) were standing right next to Theodore when the explosion that killed his mother happened. Welty also passes away during the explosion but not before he would influence Theodore to take the painting. Thus changing the trajectory of the rest of his life.
This film is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Donna Tartt of the same name. I have not read the book so I cannot make a comparison between the two. The director, John Crowley (Brooklyn and Closed Circuit) makes a visually beautiful film. You can tell that care was taken to make the film have a certain feel and texture. The cast is very good, including those mentioned above and Finn Wolfhard, Sarah Paulson, Aneurin Barnard and more. I particularly thought the casting of Oakes Fegley as the Young Theodore and Ansel Elgort as the adult Theodore was particularly good. The story skipped in sequence and you could see the similarity in the two actors as on character. The overall story is original and fascinating. But the film jumped around and made it feel choppy. Also the run time of two hours and twenty nine minutes somehow felt longer than that. The story moved at a snail’s pace and really seemed like it had no direction. Then in the final 10 minutes it wrapped up in a flash.
I thought overall the performances were good and the story was interesting but how it was presented really lacked. It was slow and developed in a non-compelling way. I could definitely see potential but it fell a little short for me. It did make me want to read the book and see how the author meant for the story to be told. I would recommend seeing this in a theater for the cinematography because it was beautifully shot.