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I saw three movies this week, two recent flicks in a theater and one oldie on the tube. I’m not quite sure what I saw in Branded. I know it was satirizing our gluttony for fast foods (especially huge burgers) and our alarming increase in obesity, our falling like druggies under the influence of advertising agencies. I know it was set mainly in Moscow although I’m not sure why it needed to be. I know Leelee Sobieski looks and sounds enough like Helen Hunt to be her twin (except for a rather prominent nose). There. That’s all I know about this extremely puzzling film.

Earlier, I saw Celeste and Jesse Forever, and I understood this one although it also saddened me with its portrayal of found and lost love. I kept seeing parallels to (500) Days of Summer, especially in Rashida Jones’ physical similarity to Zooey Deschanel from (500) Days. But the two flipflop as losers and winners. Celeste (Rashida Jones) is like Joseph Gordon-Levitt from (500) Days, both of whom have lost love and then find love. Celeste too must accept the loss of the husband/friend/lover Jesse (Andy Samberg) when they finally divorce and get on with their lives. I thought Celeste and Jesse Forever was well worth seeing, though not quite as good as (500) Days.

And finally, we sat through the three hours of The Green Mile, with Tom Hanks, David Morse and Michael Clarke Duncan and enjoyed it despite the length and the too typically Stephen King reliance on supernatural elements (the cloud of flies from John Coffey's mouth). The news of Duncan’s death this week saddened us as we watched his performance as the giant John Coffey. But Hanks (as Paul Edgecomb, the humane head guard in Block E), Morse (as Brutus Howell, another prison guard), Sam Rockwell (as the completely disgusting Wild Bill Wharton), Doug Hutchinson (as the hateful psycho Percy Wetmore), and Mr. Jingles (as himself) were a delight. We liked it so much we’re now going to find and see another King story about life in prison, The Shawshank Redemption with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.