There are spoilers ahead, stop reading if you want to see this flick without knowing what's going to happen.

I was sick. With a cold. I felt awful. But I had scheduled a Sunday program that I had to be at work for, so I went in. And while I was there, I said to the other worker bees, I'm sick, I'm staying home tomorrow. And I called around til I found someone who would cover for me.

Unfortunately, I forgot one thing: every other Monday is house cleaning day. And I don't like to be around for it, because vacuum cleaners kick up so much dust they make my sinuses ache. Imagine how much worse that would be with a cold.

So I checked the local movie theater, which is a fifteen minute walk away, and found this playing at just the right time to avoid the house cleaners. I walked there, had a hot dog AND some of those things they used to call Bon Bons back when they were big, and (except for the sick part) enjoyed myself.

And the house was clean when I came home.

Oh, the movie? it was okay. Owen Wilson, Adrian Brody and Jason Schwartzman, all of whom I like, play the brothers. There are a few amusing moments. You know someone really famous is going to play their mother when they finally track her down, and I was pleased to see that it was Serious Honey Anjelica Huston, chewing scenery like a pro. And the last scene, where these three guys who are traumatized by their father's death and have hauled all their stuff in his inherited suitcases all the way across India, finally THROW AWAY THEIR FATHER'S BAGGAGE, was perfect. The best thing in the whole movie.

And the pre-movie short, which actually turns out to be a preface to the movie? pointless. Just Wes Anderson being artsy-fartsy and pretentious. And Natalie Portman may be naked, but you sure don't see much, she is EXTREMELY carefully posed. Feh.

Watch The Royal Tenenbaums instead, it's the same kind of story (grown kids dealing with screwed-up childhoods) but MUCH better. And also has Anjelica Huston.