A date with Sarah-Kate; Kate’s home truths

A star is reborn for starry -eyed Sarah-Kate

One of life’s great pleasures is going to the movies on your own during the day. I don’t do it very often for a number of reasons – time poverty for one, common or garden guilt for another.

Also, the day I go can’t be sunny. That’s something that was ingrained into the young Lynch clan when movies cost pence, not cents. We lived in Dunedin back then and sunny days weren’t exactly the norm, so it seemed fair enough.

But all these years later, even without parental guidance, I still can’t bring myself to eschew blue skies for a movie theatre no matter how much I want to see the movie.

Imagine my happiness then when on a three-day trip to a sunny beachside spot with a neighbourhood art-house cinema, the weather clagged in at the exact same time the movie I had been desperate to see – AStarisBorn – was scheduled to screen.

I couldn’t dump my bucket and spade quickly enough. Bradley Cooper is the closest I have to a big-screen heartthrob these days – that grin, those sparkling blue eyes, them muscles! I’d go and watch him talk about gardening – which is at the very bottom of the list of things my ears want to be assaulted by.

But I was keen to see what, as a director as well as lead actor, he’d done with AStar isBorn because I loved the Kris Kristofferson and Barbra Streisand version. If you’re not familiar with the story, a boozy singer falls for an undiscovered real person who soon outshines him with her talent – with tragic results. What’s not to love?

For me, potentially it was Lady Gaga in the Barbra Streisand role. I’ve never been that much of a Gaga fan. I might hum along to “Poker Face”, but the meat-dress side of things doesn’t appeal. So when I settled into my seat with a choc-nut ice cream and a box of tissues, I was in it for Bradley.

Yet from the moment Gaga appeared on screen, Bradley had to fight to keep his special place in my heart. Without make-up and her famous persona to hide behind, even though she was acting, Gaga had “real person” written all over her. Until she sang – and then she was something truly special. She could give the late Whitney Houston a run for her money, that’s for sure.

If she’s not up on stage accepting a golden statue come Oscar time, I’ll eat my fascinator. (Although hopefully life won’t imitate art if that does happen – one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the movie takes place at an awards ceremony.)

Anyway, I loved my holiday within a holiday, blubbing my way through the credits and emerging into the cloudy afternoon feeling happily indulged.

Over the upcoming holiday period, I recommend we all sneak off to the movies for a little “me time”. Or do it sooner. Say you’re off to the mall to go Christmas shopping but order everything online and instead buy yourself a couple of hours of escapism. And a choc-nut ice cream.