Sunday, September 17, 2006

Shit performance. Result, we lost. Black Dahlia, very interesting…

Feel quite deflated, and it’s going to be a struggle to express in words how annoyed I am. Having won 4 games on the trot, I hoped that the trend would continue against Arsenal. We have really missed an excellent opportunity to make the league a real two horse race, between ourselves and Chelsea.

Right from the start, you could tell that the Gooners were more than up for it. They played well, had a lot more guile than United and seemed “fresher”. I’m not saying United turned into journey men in the space of 3-4 days. But we looked second best at most things. Briefly, after we conceded the penalty (and the subsequent save). I thought it might actually be our day. But, alas that proved to be a false dawn.

United did have chances throughout the game, namely Ronaldo’s shot being saved by Lehman’s Teutonic face. Lehman also had the audacity to tip over Solskjaer effort. They deserved the goal and the win. Hopefully everyone will pick themselves up and against Reading we’ll get back to our winning ways…

Before the match, I went off to watch “The Black Dahlia”, Brian de Palma’s new film. The film is an adaptation of James Ellroy (author of Rum Punch and LA Confidential) version of the murder of Elisabeth Short, an aspiring actress in the 1940’s. Her murder was never solved, and if you search for it on Google, you’ll find listings of millions of lists dedicated to the case.

Using the murder as the background to the story, we encounter two cops (both retired boxers) “Bucky” (played with much gravitas by Josh Hartnett) and “Lee” (played by Aaron Eckhart. The film centres on the two policemen’s attempt to follow up leads and work on the case. However what slowly becomes apparent is that both men have their own reasons for wanting to solve the mystery. Scarlett Johansson, Mia Kirshner and Hilary Swank all do wonderfully in their roles.

If you are familiar with the writings of James Ellroy, you’ll know that there are many plot turns and twists. It was an enjoyable romp, superbly visualised, and supported by a great cast. The film had a dream like visual style, and while none of he characters came across as wonderful human beings, you wanted to follow the story to the end. All in all, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on lazy Sunday. It proved to be more entertaining than watching United lose against Arsenal!!

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