Mister and I donated blood this morning.  I’ve never donated blood before.  Turns out it makes me cranky.  Who knew?  After the cranky went away, which didn’t take too long, Mister took me to see Atlas Shrugged for my birthday.  We rarely go to the theater because it’s ridiculously priced, it’s germy, and entirely too loud.  But there are some occasions that will get my butt there.  I’ve seen every single Tim Burton film at the theater – my own little tradition.  At any rate, I’ve been excited about Atlas Shrugged for a while now.

I fully admit that I have never been able to make it all the way through the book.  The print is minuscule and it’s 1,074 pages long.  I’m going to try another go at it this year.  If I can find time.  So here’s my mini review of the film …

I think that the dialogue was a little stiff at times and the characters more formal than the real world. The characters tend to be the very extreme representations of the real world personas such as the evil lobbyists, the “My only interest is in making money” capitalist.  But I don’t think that that strays from the book, really.  And it works here, because the characters are secondary to the message.  It very definitely sends a message – and that message is that government is out of control.  Considering the sheer hugeness of the book, I think they did an excellent job. For an independent film with a limited budget, I was impressed. I think that there are definitely people who absolutely will not like it, but I think that those people are the same ones who would never have considered seeing it in the first place.   I highly recommend it. Plus, the fella that plays Hank Rearden is totally lunchable.