As Joe begins to gain Susan's attention, the Brown family goes about trying to figure out a subtle way to break up the potential couple. First, what appears to be a random job opportunity pops up for Joe, which would provide him opportunity for a solid career in accounting. The job so happens to be back in his hometown of Dufton. He learns by accident that the Brown family set him up for the job and so he turns it down. As that move failed, the Brown family sends Susan off to France.
That happiness doesn't last long. The mine owner cuts the wages due to what sounds like a recession. The workers go on strike. The father, Gwilym Morgan (Donald Crisp), opposes the strike and is ostracized by the community. The mother, Beth (Sara Allgood), and Huw fall into a frozen stream and suffer significant health consequences due to the exposure to the freezing temperatures. Angharad is courted by the mine owner's son and they marry -- even though she is still in love with the preacher. Ivor dies in a coal mining accident. Two of the other sons eventually get laid off from the mine and move to America. And as the movie ends, the father also dies in the mines.
During the drive, they mention the names of two individuals. Initially, I thought it might be their children as they look like a couple who are in their late 30s to 40s, but I later learned that the two individuals mentioned are close friends. Also, they seem rather direct and formal with each other, but considering that they're British it just feels that this might be normal.
They randomly run into some friends at a stop and this is where relational troubles start to arise. While at dinner, the couple are separated at the table and Alex spends time flirting with a female friend. Katherine is very unhappy about this situation. In revenge, she later brings up the fact that while she was dating Alex, a poet friend had tried to pursue her. In fact, she tells Alex, the poet showed up outside her window just before she was to be married. This ploy of hers to make Alex jealous backfires and actually creates a rift between the two.
As stated in the movie, the two of them had seldom spent time alone as a married couple. Instead, spending time with the two individuals mentioned earlier in the movie. After only a few days alone, they just find they can't get along with each other. In some ways, it is a wonder that they got married in the first place as their personal interests have no real intersection. Katherine finds excitement in visiting museums and historical sites. Alex finds excitement at bars and interactions with people. The wedge between them sends him looking into the possibility of having an affair.
As the wedge between them seems more like two roads diverging, Alex proposes that they just get a divorce. And yet, as the movie comes to a conclusion, Katherine finds herself separated from Alex during a religious town ceremony. She doesn't appear to be in any real danger so it seems more like she finds herself just not wanting to be separated from Alex. She calls out to him and he goes towards her. It is there that they realize that they do truly love each other.
The movie takes a glimpse into the life of a couple over a short period of time. One can see how this movie may have influenced Audrey Hepburn's "Two for the Road." That movie also deals with a well to do couple who are having relationship troubles that arise while they are on a trip. Is there potentially a hint that vacations cause family problems to arise? Actually, that can probably be seen in plenty of movies and in personal lives in general. Perhaps it even had an influence on a 1990s art movie called "Enchanted April."
I did enjoy the low key style of the movie and how it explored how a moment in time caused a relationship to rapidly fall apart. Yet, I question the happy ending of the movie. Was this a couple who really were in love? They just seem to have such diverse interests. Of course, maybe those interests only came to the surface due to the fact that they had plenty of free time. Perhaps one of the subtle points of the movie is that relationships aren't just built based on the two couples, but by the community and general time consuming moments that surrounds them -- be it the two friends that were missing or the work that occupied Alex's time.
The movie was initially released as "Viaggio in Italia," which explains the movie poster.
The federal government expects U.S. mortality rates to be elevated by 15% over pre-pandemic norms in 2021 and not return to normal levels until 2023, according to a report released Tuesday by the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare programs.
The trustees concluded that these elevated mortality rates, along with lower immigration and depressed fertility rates, have had a significant effect on the trust funds supporting both programs in the short term. But the virus' long-term effects on America's retirement and healthcare systems remain unclear, as the pandemic still appears far from over.
There are some interesting dynamics here. Larry's life was saved by a friend. The friend sacrificed his life for Larry's during the war. This causes Larry to want to examine the meaning of one's life versus striving to make America a dominant country. He is willing to live a simplified life, perhaps eventually taking a low paid job to help better support his family. This clashes with Isabel and Elliot who are wealthy and can't imagine not living with such wealth. Another interesting point is that even though Isabel and Elliot are snobbish about money, it doesn't necessarily prevent them from associated with other classes of society. Somehow Larry and Isabel did meet and fall in love. Isabel also is friends with the Sophie and Bob MacDonald (Anne Baxter and Frank Latimore) who appear to have a middle class lifestyle.
Life expectancy in the United States declined by a year and a half in 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says the coronavirus is largely to blame.
COVID-19 contributed to 74% of the decline in life expectancy from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77.3 years in 2020, according to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.
After that scene, we're introduced to Rick Masters who is a counterfeiter. He is in a warehouse, printing up fake $20 bills. We're introduced to a rather complex process and see how the bills are created from start to finish: from the drawing up of the bills to tossing the bills into a dryer to create a look of used bills.
We learn that Jimmy is just three days away from retirement, but has one last job to do. Another role of the Secret Service is to track down counterfeiting operations. He heads to the desert to track down Rick Masters. Somehow the Secret Service has figured out where the warehouse is. When he gets to the warehouse, he is shot dead.
A few days later, Richard and team head to the warehouse and find Jimmy's body, dumped into a garbage container. All the equipment has already been moved out except for the dryer (which honestly seems odd). Richard than takes over as lead investigator to track down Rick Masters. He is given a new partner named John Vukovich.
Scientific American (July 6) addresses a concern that millions of Americans could face permanent disability:
In addition to the personal suffering, long-term disability comes with a staggering price tag—including increased health care costs; reduction or loss of employment; and economic strain on worker’s compensation and disability support programs. It’s been estimated that as much as 30 percent of the COVID health burden could arise from COVID-induced disability. As physician and University of Massachusetts medical professor Steven Martin recently told NPR, “If we end up with a million people with ongoing symptoms that are debilitating, that is a tremendous burden for each of these individuals, but also for our health care system and our society.”
First: global oil production in existing fields decline between 4% - 7% based on level of investments in those fields.
