DAKOTA'S COMING OF AGE

While I wasn't looking, Gentle Readers, Dakota Fanning came of age as an actress.

I thought she would do so as Lily in The Secret Life of Bees, but that movie really didn't do anything for me. The filmmakers simply did not capture the Lily who is portrayed in the much loved novel by Sue Monk Kidd.

But lo and behold, I had missed a movie Hannah Dakota Fanning (no wonder they call her Dakota - who wants to be Hannah Fanning? kinda reminds me of the saying my aunt's fanny) starred in that was released in 2007: Hounddog. Apparently the movie was rather controversial and was not shown in some cities because of a scene in which Fanning's character, Lewellen, is raped. But as Fanning herself pointed out, it didn't really happen and she was just acting.

While I certainly thought Fanning was great in I Am Sam and Man on Fire, she was great in the way that a precocious child is great. In Hounddog, she is great as a young adult who is not going to be "former child actress Dakota Fanning." Ms. Fanning should have a long career ahead of her, if she wants it.

The movie is heartbreaking and dramatic, and of course, not for children.

David Morse plays Lewellen's daddy, Lew, who starts the film as the rather menacing type of character for which he is now known, but then he is struck stupid by lightning and turns into an idiot snaggle-toothed cracker. My first memory of David Morse was when he played the hapless, sweet widower doctor nicknamed Boomer on the tv show St. Elsewhere. I loved that show. How interesting that he has extended and expanded his career by playing a variety of characters, many evil, but also a good prison guard in The Green Mile.

Well, let's conclude now with salutations to Hannah Fanning.

Dakota, you are way cool.

Love,

Lola

Oh, and by the way, Dakota Fanning and I share our date of birth: February 23. Of course, the year is different. I was at least ten or twelve or ******* when she was born in 1994.