Smaller

When I'm sick, I always wish I was smaller. Not necessarily younger, but smaller. This would be because I get immense phantom pains when I'm sick, especially when I have a fever. It begins at the small of my back, an ache somewhere below the kidneys. When the fever rises a bit, the ache moves to the limbs: forearms, fingers and legs.

And, to top it all off, when the fever rises high enough, the pain moves to the skin. All of my skin burns, especially when touched. Clothes hurt, sitting hurts, showering hurts. And that's when I wish I was smaller, mostly because it would be nicer if the pain was... supressed, affecting a smaller area. If I was smaller, there would be less of me that could hurt.

I don't like being sick.

Foxfire

Well, the whole of Finland seems to be abuzz of foxfires, also known as aurora borealis or northern lights. I might as well jump in on the band wagon as it rolls by, so here are a few pictures from Jyväskylä.

It is a spectacular view, I must admit, and totally worth watching. I only saw greens tonight, but there's been a few pictures of purple tones up in the sky as well. The light show is still on in some places, so go check them out if you have the time.

Intouchables

- or how I restored my faith in humanity.

I watched Intouchables yesterday. It's a heartwarming, wonderful, brilliant movie and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everybody. I'll try not to spoil the movie as I go through the whys, but, once again, beware of spoilers. If you want to see the movie without any of it being spoiled, read this after you've seen it.

So, why is Intouchables such a good movie? Off the bat, it opens with an entrancing scene, immersing the watcher in the beautifully fitting soundtrack by Ludovico Einaudi. It's also fittingly cast, thoughtfully directed, well screened and the characters feel real. It makes sense they would feel real - the movie is based on a true story, after all.

The movie in and of itself isn't anything new or astounding: it's a growth story, it's about friendship, caring and courage. It's something that we've seen a thousand times before, in children's movies, in fantasy settings, in good-willing whole-family deals and all around in the kind of movies that air on tv during christmas. What makes Intouchables special is how real it feels. The characters act like real people: they're not cardboard cutouts, they do mistakes, tell horrible jokes, fumble and pick themselves up. They're afraid, they're in pain, they care.

And sometimes they dress up to smoke.

What made Intouchables spectacular to me was the amount of feeling they'd been able to put in there. There's some bumbling foolishness in the movie, but it's not the Adam Sandler -kind, it's real. It's the kind of goofy you might pull with a friend, and it's heartwarming. There's a scene where Philippe and Driss cruise around with the motorized wheel chair, and the whole point of it (atleast it seemed to me) is to make them feel real, feel like people.

What's most spectacular is how much you can feel the people care for each other. Even if it is underlined, even if it is "just a movie", it's based on a true story. Here we come to my secondary title. To me, watching a movie about people caring about each other - total strangers to begin with - that's based on real people, real friends, was the most spectacular thing. To know that there are people like this out there made the movie that much better.

My recommendation to everyone is to watch Intouchables if you haven't. Watch it alone, watch it with a friend, watch it at home or in the movies. Just watch it, laugh and cry and feel with the movie. It's definitely worth it.