Sundance Newbies

For two Sundance newbies, we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. We drove up to Park City, by which point it was raining/sleeting pretty hard. It didn't let up all night, and was snowing in the morning when we left, but that was okay, it just added to the mountain atmosphere.

We grabbed an early supper at this Mexican place, El Chubasco. There are some really nice places to eat up in Park City, and we love to get sushi normally when we go places together, but we're saving for our big trip to Hawaii next week, so we kept it simple.

After trying out the fajitas and salsa bar, we checked out our hotel...the classic picturesque snowy ski lodge. I'll review it in the next post, but we were impressed. And we have stayed in some nice places, so at the risk of sounding like the hotel snobs we are, we're not easily impressed.

We caught a quick nap in anticipation of a long night...we're not as young as we once were, and can't stay up til all hours like we used to without a little help. Then we took the hotel shuttle into downtown Park City to check out the scene. We wandered up and down Main Street with the crowd. Although fun, it was also dark, wet, and cold, so we popped into a couple places to warm up. A bookshop/chocolate shop for some hot chocolate and treats for later, and an art gallery to check out some amazing nature photos.

Thanks to the impressive volunteers and well-run shuttle system, we easily found the shuttle to our theater and got in line about an hour before the film started. Although incredibly bored waiting around, we were pleasantly surprised to find a giant tent for us to stand in. Austin says next year he's bringing a tripod to sit on.

           
   

                         Giant tent starts filling up with people

We'll make great old people. 

The movie (The Hollars) was, well, moving. I don't expect much from movies, generally speaking...I'm more of a book person. But as the movie explored messy family relationships, it made you examine your own relationships and experiences and see them in the light of what's happening in the movie. We laughed and cried in about equal proportions the entire movie, so I'm not sure how they're going to market it for film goers...(Apparently it just got bought by Sony).

One funny moment from the Q and A with Jim Krasinski after the film...an audience member got called on and went on about how the film touched him and reminded him of when his father was in the hospital dying and...he heard Jim Krasinski liked basketball. Would Jim read his screenplay about a basketball story? Cue a collective groan from the audience.

The volunteers were trying to clear people out of the theater quickly, so we just got a picture and took off for our personal after-party back at the hotel. This included snacks, a nice steam shower for congested Austin and a bath in the jetted tub for me (couldn't resist trying that sucker out). We made it to bed a little after 1 a.m., so about as wild as it gets for us. It was a fun night.