Narnia

Today I took Cathy, Jenny and her friend to see Narnia (Lion Witch and Wardrobe). Cinema full. The film began with an added second world war theme: being 21st century English schoolchildren my companions knew the Anderson shelter and evacuation drill better than I and no doubt the people being depicted. Once we got over that and the obligatory "lovingly recreated English 40s nostalgia" of the professor's house, etc, the film got into its stride, sticking to the book pretty well all the way through, even to the hunting coda at the end, when the children are adult kings and queens. The film held back at depicting any act of violence to the extent that it often wasn't clear what was actually supposed to have happened. Quite a change from the usual -- just thinking of how many times we saw in flashback Boromir's (admittedly gore-free) death in LOTR trilogy. Despite this "let's cut away before anyone could be upset" mode (rather than relying on the hands over eyes tradition), the movie was absorbing, and poignantly nostalgic for those like me "of a certain age". I guess many of the adults in the audience, like me, remembered the book as one of their childhood favourites, and were relieved finally to enjoy a proper version. (Yes, I know the BBC don't have much money but having Peter smaller (younger?) than Edmund was a really bad start to their disappointingly naff version.) As usual I have to stop here as I am being called to domestic matters.