Breach

Last night I went alone to see Breach. It's the story of the capture of FBI super-traitor Robert Hanssen. I love Chris Cooper (Hanssen), and Ryan Phillipe (agent Eric O'Neill) is always enjoyable to look at. The movie is actually better than I expected, it's a good story to start with.

Chris Cooper is his usual dour but interesting self. I heard a radio interview with him on NPR last year and he is just as serious in real life as the characters he plays... zero sense of humor. Laura Linney is also just great as O'Neill's boss Kate Burroughs. I'm not sure why she has yet to achieve Streep status but I think she's that good, perhaps a little on the chilly side. I wish Ryan Phillipe was a better actor. He sure tries hard but there's no way he could have carried this movie without Cooper and Linney along for the ride. He just doesn't have it.

The movie has all the requisite spy plot twists and gimmicks- bugged offices, cars being tailed, our hero escaping detection at the last possible second every time he snoops around his boss' office. My one big complaint is that we are supposed to believe that Hanssen more or less let himself be duped by O'Neill due to some kind of spy burn-out.

Oscars!!

As you are all waiting breathlessly for my predictions, here they are:

Best Picture

Babel

Best Actor

Forest Whitaker- Last King of Scotland

Best Actress

Helen Mirren- The Queen

Best Supporting Actor

Djimon Hounsou- Blood Diamond

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Hudson- Dreamgirls

Best Director

Martin Scorcese- The Departed

I'm more or less satisfied with all of them this year. Sometimes I strongly disagree with who I think will win, but it's pretty clear this time. Happy Predicting!

Valentine's Day

We had a quiet but sweet Valentine's Day, our 10th. I waited a bit late to make reservations anywhere so we were shut out by our usual favorites: Laurel, Oceanaire, Prado, so we ended up at Parkhouse. That was fitting because it was the place we went on our first date. Had the usual delicious liver pate (smaller portion than previously), followed by a former favorite of mine, the beef stew. Unfortunately, the new owner changed the recipe and now it's a ghastly bowl of dog food topped with gorgonzola cheese (can you imagine?!) Gone are all the wonderful vegetables and the sprinkling of sweet cornbread. It was a sad, sad evening. Hector loved his pork chop with smashed potatoes, though.

Hector gave me a certificate for a massage at the Knotstop, our new massage joint in Hillcrest. It was wonderful. We have also started taking a Pilates class there. It, on the other hand, is murder. It's all about working the areas that thought they had earned early retirement: abdomen, thighs, etc. But I do enjoy the stretching.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia was really, really cold. I met Hector in Dallas on Thursday and we flew in to Philly together. He gave me his first class upgrade which was very sweet. Since he worked all day Friday I just wandered around looking at everything. Our Downtown Marriott was directly across the street from Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia's answer to Quincy Market-Fisherman's Wharf-Pike's Market. You know, an old historic building they've turned into a tourist trap, with cafes and T-shirts and worthless crap. Anyway, I ate at one of the little cafes run by adorable Quakers, then shopped among the few attractive stalls that sell gorgeous fruit, cookbooks, homemade desserts, etc.

There was a time when Philadelphia was known as the fattest city in America and maybe officially it's not anymore but I must say they still have a lot of fat people there. Huge people. Monstrous. Even now it's a really Northeast America kind of city, with blue collar Archie Bunkers all over the place. It has that industrial feel, still. We didn't really do much of the Independence-y stuff because we'd seen it twice before and once was sufficient.

We had dinner at Oceanaire on Friday. I had Shrimps de Jonghe and a Dover Sole. Both great. We got the celebrity treatment from the staff because we were about the only ones in the whole crowded place NOT there for Philadelphia Restaurant Week, hence we were paying full price for everything. The other diners were mostly enjoying the standard "eat-pay-get out!" class of service. On Saturday night we asked the concierge about a good family-style Italian place. I guess she thought we meant cheap, because she started describing places that sounded like tourist hangouts, but then she got it that we wanted a nice place where locals go for good Italian so she steered us to La Famiglia, near Penn's Landing in the Old City. It's a beautiful place, very family, a place the Mafia probably loves. I had an arugula & pear salad and a butternut squash ravioli.