Do to life, time constraints, what have you, I haven't done any movie or book reviews for a while. But, I will be doing one today as this little movie is unusual enough and off the beaten path enough it needs all the help it can get. Besides, it stars Jared Padalecki and since he is in part responsible for my OBSESSION with the TV show Supernatural, I want to do my part. And I wouldn't do it if it wasn't worth watching anyway.








Premise: (Based on a True Story) Thomas Kinkade goes home with his brother for Christmas to find out all is not well in the town or at home. Already dealing with some dissatisfaction at the lack of direction his art is going in, Tom must now also deal with the failing health of his mentor and the coming unknown foreclosure on his mother's home and more.

Stars: Jared Padalecki, Peter O'Toole, Aaron Ashmore, Ed Asner, Richard Burgi, Marcia Gay Harden (Loads and loads of familiar faces in this one!)

Review: As I stated above, this film is based on the real life experiences of famed artist Thomas Kinkade. While you may not recognize his name, you will definitely recognize his art. For years it has embodied winter, Christmas, and all other sorts of life settings always imbued with the soft tones of light.

The movie deals with a pivotal point of Mr. Kinkade's life. One he wanted to share with us. This is not a young children's family Christmas movie. This is more a slice of real life Christmas (though even real life can at times appear over the top) and so it is for a more mature audience. A great family film for teenagers and adults. There is some language and adult themes, so beware, just basically think of it as PG-13 and choose accordingly.

This story is about Mr. Kinkade, but also about his family, his mentor, his town. About the things we forget and shouldn't, about those we can rely on, about making amends, making choices, but most of all remembering what is important -- community, family, love.

If you have ever cried during a film, I suggest you keep some hankies handy. I was teary eyed about 90% of the time and even my hubby succumbed toward the end. A lot of acting gems in this film. Many totally unexpected and some very very subtle.

Jared does a great job, though I think if they'd given him a little more of Kinkade to work with, it could have been even better. Peter O'Toole was fabulous. Richard Burgi had some utterly amazing moments, the best I've ever seen from him. Even the cliched roles, the types of people you normally expect to meet in large group setting/dynamics were done well, and some again with flaring moments that added a lot but if you blinked you might miss them. Many subtle little touches, giving the whole a depth you'd not expect from a first look.

This is a journey of discovery, not only for Mr. Kinkade but for all others involved. And though the road was hard and some were lost, the light found in the end and the people touched by it would carry them forward for the rest of their days. Sometimes it is the little things that change the world.

A truly touching film and an intimate revelation of what shaped Mr. Kinkade into the wondrous artist he becomes. A definite soon to be Christmas Classic.

I've owned a lot of cars in my time. Of our household, my car is normally the least used, its main function to ferry me to and from school/work. And most cars I've owned have actually performed marvellously with very little problems. However...

When they go, they go BIG! It's almost as if in order to serve me and give me the least amount of problems, they save up all those little bits and let them grow and grow until one day - WHAM! Major issue, kaput, done, gone, money-pit-if-you're-crazy-and-really-want-to-keep-it bad.

My first car was a used Mustang I drove back and forth to UTA. One day on the way back home I hear this gigantic BAM sound and was forced to pull over to the side of the freeway as the car would not go anymore. I'd thrown a rod. It was but the first Auto Death I would suffer.

I've destroyed transmissions, engines, assemblies, if its big I've done it in. And every time it has been totally out of the blue. No warnings, no little hints, just utter and total death.

Friday found the latest victim. My poor Black Ion... Halfway to work I went to shift gears and got nothing. Tried again, got only engine reving noises. Pulled into a parking lot on momentum realizing something was totally amiss. Got a little freaky when I parked and could move the stick shift without using the clutch in any direction I wanted. Oh dear!

Over three hours later, hubby and I had the car at the Saturn dealership. Knowing my killer aura and the fact the car was now paid for and out of warranty despite the low miles, we're having to weigh how much cost we want to absorb before just giving in and getting another car. Already we know the damage is related to the transmission, never a good sign. They have to do diagnostics on it and will take a while -- just to look at it is $100. So starving by this point, we go have lunch and run errands, the day pretty much shot by this point. In comes the call - the gear shift assembly casing fell apart. At least it wasn't the transmission. The price to fix it is below the threshold we'd calculated so we give the go ahead. Should be Monday/Tuesday before they get the part and can fix it. Awesome! Curse averted!

Or so I thought...

Saturday we're scrambling to get to a rental place and get a car before they close at noon so I have wheels to go to work in Monday. Got that settled and the car home and are about to go to lunch when in comes a call from the dealership. They got the part early, fixed the problem, took it out on a test drive and shifting into first and second gear is a little difficult. Did we have a problem with those two gears before? Uhm, no? Could be a piece of the assembly went into the second chamber of the transmission, but to find out would be a whole lot more cash and that's just to take a look. Or you could just take the car as is now. Could drive fine forever or could have the same problem again tomorrow -- no way to tell. Ever get that horrible sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? Sigh...

So off we went to look at cars! (Hubby gets very paranoid about me being out and about so no way was he going to let me drive a possible breakdown tomorrow car - I wasn't feeling too great about it myself. And of course we'd already spent over $1k so far. Grrrr) I'd actually spent a couple of hours the day before doing some research on cars I'd been wanting to do trying, thinking of possibly getting a hybrid and looking for some cheap wheels. Hybrids are cool and depending on the one you're looking at, quite fuel efficient, but the price tags are not on the cheap and that's just for the basic model. One thing we learned yesterday was that the basic price is never one you will find when you go to buy. As multiple places get a hold of the car after it leaves the factory, they do stuff to it, and every time they do something, the sticker goes up. I wanted to check out the Toyota Yaris which starts at $12K. (Would have loved to check out a Smart Car, but with their wait

I tried to avoid this as long as I could, figuring I already had way too much to do (not counting writing!) but this year I saw it was inevitable so...

Here is my first book video!

Since branding is in, I made the first one of myself and quick flashes of the books.

Had to wait till my logo was finished and have gone through much technological agony. (I swear it's like I am cursed!) But stubborness has persevered and so -- voila! Video! (Now I have to dry my eyes out looking for stock pics for the four more I need to make - one per book - ugh)(Try finding stuff for Fantasy too - double ugh)

If you have time, please take a look!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/FxfwKAb0pk4">Gloria Oliver Video</a>

Gloria Oliver
Unveiling the Fantastic
www.gloriaoliver.com