Trainwreck...

The poster for Trainwreck, the film I saw in Penrith last night, featured Amy Schumer (a stand-up comedian until now, rather than an actress) drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag, and wagging her finger at the audience and anybody else who might be tempted to pass judgement on her promiscuous behaviour. The film starts with a few of her sexual liasons, all determinedly unglamorous, mostly in the wake of heavy drinking sessions. Different guys leave her apartment, night after night; she doesn’t let them stay till morning. Once the deed is done they’re out the door.

Her attempts to get her hulk of a boyfriend to talk dirty to her fall flat; he can think of nothing more appropriate than the kinds of things he might say to his bodybuilding buddies at the gym. One morning she wakes up - disorientated, hungover, alone - in some apartment. She looks out of the window and says “Oh my God, I’m on Staten Island”, which must be a funnier joke for New Yorkers than it was for me. This is supposed to suggest that she’s hit rock bottom, that she’s spiralling out of control… that her ‘trainwreck’ of a life has finally hit the buffers. But it’s not what I would call a trainwreck; she’s just doing what she wants. She might be making a few questionable decisions, but she manages to deal with the consequences. Trainwreck? A few timetable issues, that's all.

Anyway, she meets someone and finds - reluctantly, against her better judgement - that she has feelings for him… and the rest of the movie follows a familiar trajectory. It was funny, though the best jokes came in the first half. Amy Schumer wrote the script, so, basically, she was playing herself, or, rather, the character she’s created for her stand-up act. I’d give the film 6/10: not bad, but it could have been a lot funnier…

Just found that Penrith now has free wifi throughout the town; it seems to be a growing trend. In a few years we won’t go looking for free wifi; it’ll just be there. Had home-made pie and chips - with gravy on top - from the Angel Lane Chippy: scrumptuous.

Sunshine and showers today - my favourite weather forcast - with a breeze to blow the clouds across the sky. The light is changing minute by minute, which makes it worthwhile to stay in one place, set up a shot and wait to see what happens.

Long Meg and her Daughters, a stone circle in the Eden Valley…