December 18th
Ma'am, I'm eight years old. You think I would be here alone? I don't think so.
Today’s Quote:
“When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things - not the great occasions - give off the greatest glow of happiness.”
Bob Hope
Reviews:
Wine Advent Calendar Review: The eighteenth wine of the year was a Zinfandel titled “Create a DELISH new Holiday Dish”. You know, I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a Zinfandel. It was not that bad! I think it helped that the temperature in NYC jumped up about 50 degrees overnight.
Movie Review: Merv (Prime Video, 2025): The Longest Movie.
Apologies for the delayed send everyone, my wifi decided that it was starting PTO a bit early this year, and neglected to send the proper out of office email.
In my college heydey I was on the swim team (Go Tribe!) and since this was in the ancient times before cell phones, we had nothing to entertain ourselves for long bus rides, nothing besides watching DVDs on those tiny little bus screens. One such film was the Cameron Diaz/Toni Collette classic, In Her Shoes. If you have seen In Her Shoes, you would not think that it would be the most inspiring to a group of young athletes, and you would be correct. But more to the point, the only thing many of us on the swim team remember about In Her Shoes is that it might be the longest movie ever made. I swear to you that I remember falling asleep as it started, then waking up perhaps HOURS later, and it was still running. It became a running joke, that nothing could possibly be as long as In Her Shoes, a movie I have yet to watch fully conscious from start to finish. So when I tell you that my strongest feeling after watching Merv (the new Prime Video movie) was that it was about as long as In Her Shoes, I need you to understand the gravity of that statement.
Merv is not quite a holiday film that is set over Christmas. It stars Zooey Deschanel and Charlie Cox as two people (Anna and Russ) who used to date and have since broken up, but share custody of their dog, Merv. I right away don’t love this. I understand it must be very hard to share a dog with someone and love that dog and then break up with the human person but want to maintain a relationship with the dog. But you gotta let the dog have one home, and that home is with whomever can afford the highest vet bills.
The one part of the movie I did relate to was that Anna and Russ were both very willing to take Merv to the vet when they suspected he wasn’t feeling his best self, an action I take every month with one of my very sickly cats (they usually flip a coin to decide whose turn it is). It turns out Merv is DEPRESSED because of the break-up, so Russ books a vacation for himself and Merv in Florida at a beach for dogs. Sounds like fun, for someone who enjoys the sun and lots of dogs. Me personally? I would prefer to go to a retreat for cat lovers, where we in fact don’t actually go anywhere because cats don’t travel, but we do a collective zoom meeting to talk about the latest advancements in kidney disease prevention.
This Florida part of the movie really really dragged (very In Her Shoes of it), and almost nothing happened. Russ meets a lady who would be interested in dating him but he’s still in love with Anna. Then we meet Russ’s parents who also weirdly live in Florida. Merv was also NOT a focus here, he’s just there to whine if Anna and Russ separate. Let Merv run wild!
We learn about 500 minutes into the movie that Anna broke up with Russ because she learned she can’t have children. And she still loves him, and he loves her. Fine. But did we need to go to FLORIDA to learn that?
I did like that eventually Russ came to his senses and let Merv choose a home, and adopted another dog from a shelter. Adopt, don’t shop, that’s very important. The new dog named Angelina is one of those Boston Terrier types where their eyes just point in different directions. The whole time I was thinking about how she really must not be able to see things in front of her, but boy her peripheral vision must be astounding.
This movie was very long and dragged, but there are some bright spots (dogs, adopting dogs) that could make it worth your while.
Musings:
