Lap(top) Dancing

Granted, I'm late to the dance. Or rather, to two dances.

The Slow Dance: I have just now seen Marion Cotillard's stunning, 2007 Oscar-winning performance in "La Vie En Rose," the celebrated biopic of French cabaret singer Edith Piaf. It's hard to imagine that the Cotillard of this film is the same young actress who played opposite Russell Crowe in a recent lackluster movie about Peter Mayle's widely noted "year in Provence." I've forgotten the title of that movie, and it's just as well, as nothing there would have suggested the brilliant Cotillard I watched on my laptop last night.

The Lap(top)Dance: Yes...laptop. Netflix subscribers (which I am by way of a retirement gift last fall), are now able to click on "Browse Instant DVD's," download a title, and watch away. While I can't claim a laptop screen is as rewarding to watch as the big screen is in a local theater, I can tell you it's more efficient.

Example: I took a long telephone call from a friend just as the Netfilx film got under way. Failing to hit "stop" or "pause" on the computer, I had missed nearly an hour of the film by the time I returned to it. As is so with any DVD, all I had to do was to replay what I had missed--in this case, everything from the opening titles. Within moments, I was as immersed and wide-eyed at Ms. Cotillard's "Little Sparrow" as if I had never permitted the interrupting phone call.

So...if you haven't yet, do see this film. And if you aren't in a mood to see it in the concrete bunker at the mall or downtown, give your computer a chance.