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{"id":95644,"date":"2015-02-15T14:34:20","date_gmt":"2015-02-15T21:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?p=95644"},"modified":"2015-02-15T14:34:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T21:34:20","slug":"two-visits-to-london-two-well-rounded-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2015\/02\/two-visits-to-london-two-well-rounded-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Visits to London, Two Well-Rounded Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"Paddington\"$ <\/a>This weekend, I had an incredible amount of writing to accomplish. So I only allowed myself two breaks, and I stuffed them with two movies.<\/p>\n

I chose wisely.<\/p>\n

The two I chose have a few things in common.\u00a0Both films take us to London. Both bring beloved characters to life (one fictional, one historical). And both of those characters are\u2026 shall we say\u2026 well-rounded?<\/p>\n

Otherwise, they\u2019re completely different. One is a complete surprise. It\u2019s an adaptation of classic children\u2019s literature, but the trailer was so appallingly bad, promising a movie overstuffed with the worst tendencies of hyperactive kiddie entertainment,\u00a0that I\u00a0was tempted to start a petition to have the film buried before it ever reached theaters. But opening-weekend reviews caught me by surprise.\u00a0I can\u2019t think of a case in which the film itself turned out to be so much better than its trailer.<\/p>\n

The other film? My expectations were high. The director \u2014 Mike Leigh \u2014 is one of my favorites. And I\u2019d been hearing raves for many months since it made the festival circuit.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019m still scrambling to get my assigned writing done, I only gave myself time to jot down first impressions of both films at my Letterboxd film journal. Here they are: Initial thoughts on Paddington<\/em><\/a> and Mr. Turner<\/em><\/a>. Catch both movies if you can.<\/p>\n

$\"Timothy$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"