Christmas Movies: We're No Angels

Last night I was at the Starbucks downtown behind a CBS tv reporter. I had no idea who she was, I gathered my info while standing in line behind her after her camera-woman found her and was discussing location footage they were going to do down there. The reporter didn't seem like a very nice person to me, but then, it's hard to judge someone's personality when you are in line behind them. After we had both ordered our drinks and were waiting at the bar, we struck up conversation. Remember, I had never seen her before as I don't watch the news (I prefer to read it) and I think my ignorance was showing, because she became more friendly and at ease the more we talked. Everyone else in Starbucks was gaping at her, obviously they had seen her before. I reveled in the fact that I was possibly the only one there who hadn't. It's good, because it keeps people like that who are used to being watched, at ease when they get over the fact that you did not know who she was. (gasp!)

Anyway, her camera-woman had been discussing things like "okay, we'll put you on the corner here, that will look really good" and was also trying to find people in Starbucks who would oblige her by standing outside for the newscast. It was funny to think about the way that this reporter would be standing on a particular corner where the wind is channeled between the skyscrapers, and only that corner, because they had to show how cold it was down there. And the camera shot of a little girl they finally found, bundled head-to-toe for dramatic, sympathetic effect. Oh, the drama of news reports, the "news" they present to us on screen is usually anything but the entire truth, or is at best exaggerated truth.

So, what does this have to do with the movie above? Because I came home last night and was laughing my way through it, when we came to the scene where Humphrey Bogart, who was "fixing the books" in an effort to get a business man out of trouble, quipped in response to said business man's objections: "In business, as in all things, there is appearance and then there is reality." I had to laugh, thinking about the way that the news report last night probably showed the reporter on the windiest corner downtown, wind-blown and shivering, the little girl from Starbucks standing all bundled head-to-toe, and whoever else they found to help them embellish their story, and all for on-location reporting to make a really otherwise dull report ("um, it's cold down here tonight") suddenly interesting.

Rent this Christmas comedy here or buy it here.