So, I didn’t know anything about Bob Howard or Novelyn Price when I popped in this 1996 flick, and I wikipediaed them as soon as it was over. Fascinating yet tragic story about the author of hundreds of pulp stories and novels, including Conan the Barbarian and his unlikely relationship with schoolteacher and aspiring author Novelyn Price.

The movie was pretty. The scenery, costumes, lighting, were all very pretty. Renee Zellweger and Vincent D’Onofrio played well off each other, although I took issue with his hard-to-take attempt at a Texas accent. On second thought, I’d heard some honest-to-God Texans speak wiht hard-to-take, fake-sounding accents, so maybe Old Vincent wasn’t too far off.

It was a little slow, but sleepy in a good way. I enjoyed it, even though it made me pretty sad.

I watched “The Namesake” today. I thought it was just a “he can be serious” vehicle for Kal Penn when I rented it, but I was surprised at how rich and moving it was.

I was surprised at the amount of movie dedicated to his parents, as everything I’d heard about it mentioned nothing at all about that. I liked it so much. I loved the actors who played his parents and I loved the development of their relationship.

I cried about three times.

I thought ol’ Kal did a good job. I didn’t see his potential so much in “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle” (big surpise), and I didn’t see that crappy “Van Wilder” sequal. He did a stint on House (and I guess will continue to be on that show, if TV ever comes back) and I liked him, but I didn’t get a “holy crap this guy is a really good actor” vibe from him. He shows some chops in “The Namesake”. It’s a shame it has such a chick-flicky cover, because a lot of guys (my husband included) will steer way clear of it for fear that it is a chick flick.

And as far as my husband is concerned, a chick flick is NOT worth his time if it doesn’t have Drew Barrymore in it.

Next up is “The Whole Wide World”. I’ll let you know.