All Is Lost

This review contains spoilers.

The "All Is Lost" release puzzled me. A movie with this much positive press, and overwhelming good reviews, was showing at only one screen in Greater Vancouver.

After I saw the movie, I could understand why. More on that later.

Robert Redford is the only character in the movie. He gives the most lifelike, believable, fallible, intelligent performance I've ever seen. I could really imagine being there in his place during the entire film - doing everything he did, thinking everything he thinks. I would even be as quiet as he was - after the opening "letter reading" monologue, Redford speaks about ten words during the entire 106 minutes.

I spent the duration of the movie with my heart in my throat.

You've probably read about or heard the plot somewhere else by now. A lone man on a 39 foot sailboat in the Indian Ocean gets hit by a shipping container lost from a freighter. And then his boat starts to sink.

The movie is all about the sinking, the saving of supplies, the abandonment of the yacht to a life-raft, the struggle to be found - and all the hopelessness that entails.

You may as well have strapped a video camera onto an actual yachtsman and filmed all that ensues. Only during the movie you'll see things you could only imagine happen - like what a capsize would look like.

For anyone who's ever sailed, you can find a couple of "I would have done that" or "I would have had this" moments but for the most part everything that happens absolutely could (would?) happen. This movie should be mandatory viewing for anyone making an offshore passage in a sailboat. And there's the rub.

The theater was about 1/3 full for a matinee on it's Canadian opening weekend. I think the reason it was sparsely attended was because of the subject matter. It's a movie about sailing - or more precisely not sailing.

But it's a movie of survival. Way, way more believable than "Gravity", and I think it's actually a much better movie. Only because it could really happen today. And yesterday. And tomorrow.

So forget that you'd get even more out of the film if you sail. The story about a man, the sea, and mortality is an old story. But the telling of the story here is epic.

Go see it and tell me what you think... 

Our Clothing Doesn't Cut It Anymore...

I thought about this the other day ... when was the last time our clothing changed in any kind of functional way?

Sure, fashion comes and goes. Wide ties were in. Then wide ties were out. Then no ties at all.

You could say that clothing has evolved to suit us over the last few thousand years, and it works very well - but does it really?

Think of all the recent changes that aren't accommodated by your standard dress, or your standard accessories:

• Everyone carries a smartphone these days. Where do you keep it? Is it safe stuffed into your front pocket? How about your purse?
• Same thing for your iPhone/iPod/MP3 player - although that might also be your phone, but I still see a ton of people with their music players.
• There's a trend to start making smaller denomination currencies - bills - into coins. Are you carrying more coins around with you than you used to? Are they bigger and heavier?
• Although the smartphone has consolidated many accessories into one device, many people still carry a camera. Or a pocketknife. Or a flashlight.
• And how about that set of keys?

The point being is that - for men at least - all this stuff must find a home in your pockets. More and more women travel without a purse - think how easy it is to misplace, lose or have stolen - so have the same problem. And they likely have fewer, smaller pockets.

Only one company I know about has tackled this issue with a line incorporating something they call TEC - Technology Enabled Clothing. I've bought a lot of stuff from them over the years, and while there have been some hits-and-misses as far as durability, the fit and practicality works well for me.

Their Internet-based, so you have to buy on-line. This is another trend that the retail world is trying to come to grips with.  Almost all of my shopping is now virtual (although I did have to get a pair of shoes resoled - that's hard to do online).

These guys even make underwear - which I bought several years ago, and ordered some more recently
(they actually double as a swim suit in a pinch).

The cotton stuff you get at Costco just doesn't last...