I've cut and pasted the highlites from the Tribune's Kinkade story below. Is the "clock ticking" on the Chicago Tribune ? Perhaps -- since their reckless new owner has brought them into Chapter 11.
But is it ticking on Freedom of Speech ? I don't think so -- because nothing is as free as the internet. Here, for example, is the same Tribune critic's review of a recent gallery opening at the Art Institute: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/arts/chi-gallery-p5-1207dec07,0,679858 4.story While here is a quite different opinion -- just one of a countless multitude that are now possible to be posted and then easily discovered with a search engine: http://mountshang.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-south-asian-gallery-at-aic.html BTW, Michael, if it is incorrect to say anything about "our judgments" -- would it also be incorrect to discuss "our elbows" and "our noses" (and how the two can never touch) ? *********************************************************** The 103-minute movie appears on DVD (Lionsgate, $19.98) just in time for viewers to purchase Kinkade holiday collectibles. In this way, it functions as the trailer for a virtual Bedford Falls of lighted-village sculptures and a limited-edition print of the work the mature artist is seen painting at film's end. Fans of the 21st Century will recoil from the movie as surely as did Dracula from wolfsbane. That's because it is directed toward mavericks who want to turn back the clock to a "simpler" time. "Christmas Cottage" is supposed to take place in 1977, but it may as well have been 30 years earlier, when greeting cards and Frank Capra movies possibly still shaped American fantasies. In the film's never-never land, collegian Kinkade (played by Jared Padalecki) goes home for Christmas to discover his stoic, caring-for-everyone mother (Marcia Gay Harden) has lost her job and is about to lose the leaky cottage in which she, alone, reared two sons. An artist said to be celebrated (Peter O'Toole) lives next door, unable to paint because of grief and age. He presents Tom an example of self-righteousness with such declamations as: "I will not pander. I will not put crap art into the market." One of his pieties leads the boy to paint townsfolk into a mural he is doing to earn money for Mom. Everybody loves it except Kinkade's big-city girlfriend, who is elitist and in the colorful company of the town (which includes Chris Elliott in a Caligula wig) seems not quite American. She leaves the church pageant in tears before Kinkade pours out his own grief and love to his mentor who, in turn, paints a painting anddo not worry, I won't spoil the remaining cliches. The film might be expected to look like Kinkade paintings, but the cottage resembles the one on the box of the DVD only after the adult Kinkade has shown he learned all the life lessons and painted it glowing, lemon-yellow, the work of an arsonist of love. So there we are. Go for it. It's as heartwarming as shooting wolves from a helicopter. (Alan Artner) ____________________________________________________________ Save $15 on Flowers and Gifts from FTD! Shop now at http://offers.netzero.net/TGL1231/?u=http://www.ftd.com/17007
