Tuesday, November 14, 2017

APPLE, PENNY, TABLE





cinema à la carte                                 





THE FEAR
(Netflix)

The FEAR

I started watching The Fear last night.  Late last night. In brief: A Brighton crime boss turned entrepreneur and the disintegration of a criminal mind.  That's very brief.  This film features Albanian mobsters who, I believe, once ran a school for ISIS newbies on how to get your point across.  But here's what I'm posting this for. 

Richie is an aging Brit crime boss who owns Brighton. His two sons, Matty and Cal (he, something of a half wit)  run the business while Richie enjoys his golden years.  Then two things happen. 

First, Richie flys off the handle when a unicyclist rests his arm on his chauffeured car at a stoplight.  Richie throws open the door and beats the living crap out of the kid. This, on a crowded street, so the coppers soon have a description and plate number of the perp.  When Richie is confronted with it, he genuinely has no recollection.  That's a clue. 

Meanwhile, the Albanians have started taking over his turf.  Matty and Cal, especially Cal, muck things up by promising things they cannot deliver.  The Albanians let them know they won't negotiate, and deliver that  message by leaving  the decapitated head of Cal's girlfriend f under his bed pillow .  FWIW, I found this to be the most horrific and artful display of that genre, ever!


 Cutting to the chase.  APPLE, PENNY, TABLE
 
Richie is convinced he has a memory problem; probably Alzheimer's, but won't give in to it.  He visits an old Dr. friend who asks him 5 things:

  1. Remember the words apple, penny, table
  2. What date is it.
  3. The Season?
  4. Count backwards from 100 by sevens (subtract 7)
  5. And finally, what were the three words?
Richie comes close with the date, missing by a day. The season?  Fall.  Spot on.   He stumbles counting backwards, but gets the first 3 or 4 iterations.  But he can't remember TABLE.  But wait. A few minutes later he remembers Table.

Which leads me to this tenuous aside:

You prolly, like me, took the test with Richie.  How did you do?  I ask this for a reason.

1 comment:

Rodger the Real King of France said...

UPDATE: Just watched episodes 3 & 4. Skip them. Really.

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