After seeing lots of movie promos with giant bears in the snow, Alec and I were keen to see this movie when it was released.

The Golden Compass is based on a series of books, which explains the huge amount of exposition they try to cram into the movie by way of the characters’ dialogue. It’s doesn’t entirely work, and is a bit clunky – it also doesn’t make sense all of the time, as concepts are introduced but not fleshed out. The editing was also clunky, making me think the movie makers had to edit a great deal of footage down to make the film and only had a short time to do so in.

The movie is set in a parallel world where a child, Lyra, is the only one who can work a magical artifact called the golden compass. Lyra’s friends have been disappearing, and she journeys into the far north – leading her to discover that the children have been kidnapped and experimented on, and only she can save them.

I liked a lot of the concepts, such as having your soul externally to your body, as an animal that walks by your side, and the large ice bears were impressive, but the large gaps in the storyline and bad editing took away from the enjoyment of the movie.

On New Year’s Day, Alec and I went to see Death At A Funeral, a British comedy recommended to us by Alec’s Dad.

I have to say, I did laugh a lot. I thought it was a bit odd in part, quite over the top in others, but in total, really funny and particularly good to watch when i had been feeling low over being so sick.

The general storyline is that a father dies and his family and friends convene at the family home for his funeral. The film interweaves multiple story lines, involving members of the family and a mysterious stranger who has a secret about the deceased. There is accidental drug-taking, nudity and dwarfs. How could it not be the funniest funeral ever?

I particularly liked Alan Tudyk as Simon Smith, who also stars in Serenity and Firefly.