On Sunday night, after spending all afternoon working on preparing my notes for teaching sentence structure, I decided I had had enough and went out to see a movie. The theatre has become my sanctuary from work and the world. I had wanted to see Flightplan, with Jodie Foster, for a while. While the film didn't have the greatest reviews, I was still curious about it. It turns out I enjoyed it quite a bit. While it's not a great film, it's an enjoyable ride. The film has a real Hitchcockian bent to it, employing plot elements reminiscent of The Lady Vanishes and others. Sean Bean is solid as always, and Peter Sarsgaard continues his string of outstanding supporting roles. What I particularly liked about the film was the atmosphere created in the enclosed space of the airplane (albeit one of those new 400 passenger super-airbuses, but still). Of course, the main reason to see the film is Foster. She's outstanding in pretty much ever role she takes; her icy blue eyes revealing both her intelligence and beauty. It's too bad she doesn't make more films than she does (and something more substantial, since this and her last film, Panic Room, were both fairly light weight, while enjoyable). If you want to see her at her best though, check out Silence of the Lambs, and also one of my personal favourites, the film of Carl Sagan's Contact. Both of her characters in those films (and in Flightplan) are intelligent, capable women. It's refreshing from the Hollywood norm.

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Also, I found a poker night here in Victoria. Monday nights at Felicita's. It's not for cash (gambling laws and all that), but there are prizes and the players take it seriously, which is nice. While I do miss the house games from back home, this is good practice as some of these guys are really good. Still, I managed to hold my own and came away happy with my performance. It's nice to play against some different people, as I was wondering how good I really was and if I was just used to playing the same people over and over.