God of Carnage

John and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary yesterday.  Twenty. Eight. Years.  Holy moly.  


You're going to find this very mushy, but it's true:  I love John now more than I did on our wedding day.  Seriously.  I think about it every year, that some people were taking bets at our wedding, that we wouldn't last.  We knew each other less than a year when we got married, so if I attended our wedding, I might have added to the betting pool myself.  But following a gut feeling has its advantages. I knew in my heart of hearts that John was The One, and apparently he thought the same of me.  


Score one for us.


So to celebrate our anniversary, we didn't exchange gifts (as usual).  We got each other cards and did what we like to do best.  Eat and drink.  


We grilled beautiful filet mignon steaks and steamed two huge lobster tails.  (It may just be me, but nothing says "I love you" more than surf and turf.)  We split a sweet potato and sauteed vegetables on hand - including a HUGE zucchini just harvested from our garden.  We had Chianti with dinner and champagne after, while we watched a movie on DVD.


We spent 5 days in New York City for our 25th anniversary, one of the best trips ever.  On the night of our 25th, we saw the play, God of Carnage.  I can't even explain how incredible that play was.  A stellar cast of only 4 people - Marcia Gay Harden, Jeff Daniels, James Gandolfini, and Hope Davis.  Two couples meet to discuss their sons, one of which hit the other with a stick and knocked out his front teeth.  It was lighthearted, engaging, and hysterically funny!  If you care, (and I have no idea who these people are, I just found them on youtube) here is a review of the New York play:  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP-RMzRpQVA


And here is a bunch of stars gushing over the play when it arrived in Los Angles:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjxcTN9InDQ&feature=related

The play won a Tony for best play and everyone who has ever seen it loved it.  So they made a movie of it and called it Carnage.  The original awesome actors were replaced with other awesome actors:  Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet.  And it was co-written for the screen and directed by Roman Polanski.  It had to be equally if not more incredible, right?  


It sucked.


I mean, it sucked BIG TIME.  


I don't see many plays and I certainly don't see many plays that are remade into films - but I have never seen anything EVER botched as badly as this film was.  They literally sucked the humor and life out of this play.  It was painful to watch.  How could these talented people do such a disservice to such good material?!  I almost think Polanski did it intentionally.  


We still had a lovely anniversary.  (We played a few games of You Don't Know Jack - John won every game.  I think there is an issue with my controller.)  


But If there were ever an example of how "experts" are supposed to do their job, the movie Carnage it NOT it.


Ironic, don't you think?