Covid, Cruella and Edith Finch

Wednesday night, Glory took stock of the sniffles that had plagued her for a couple of days and used one of the rapid tests we have around the house - and sure enough, she tested positive for Covid. Audrey and I were negative when we tested the next morning, but she woke up with the sniffles Friday and tested positive that morning. By the end of the day, I had a sore throat and achey legs, so we are now treating the whole house as infected. Fun!

It really could be worse though - both girls are out of classes right now, and our symptoms are fairly mild (especially Fenya and I) except for an astonishing level of lethargy. 

Plus it gave us an excuse to watch a movie as a family for the first time in Lord knows how long. Audrey and Glory had chosen Cruella, the live-action prequel to 101 Dalmatians. I'm not particularly fussed about the live-action Disney re-makes, honestly,  but I adore Emma Stone and knew that Jenny Beavan, costume designer for Mad Max: Fury Road had won a second Oscar for it, so I was willing to check it out. Plus there was popcorn, so wins all around, really.

Turns out it is a tremendously good time; a PG-13 caper flick that isn't too cutesy, despite using too many CGI dogs. Emma Thompson does a great turn as The Baroness, the high-society fashionista who serves as inspiration, mentor and eventually rival and nemesis to Estella, the woman who will one day become the deranged, dog-hunting designer known as Cruella De Vil. Emma Stone is wonderful playing Estella and her alter ego Cruella, but the costumes and art design are the stars of the show. Even more delightful, the design notes are a blend of Mod '60s and the intersection of disco and punk rock, as this is a mid-'70s period piece after all.

And maybe it's because I wasn't expecting too much, but there were a couple of delightful surprises and a-ha moments I totally wasn't expecting, which is always a treat, especially in a family-friendly piece of IP leverage such as this. A good time to be sure, and I don't think that's the Covid talking!

The stranger thing we did was play a video game together. Sort of.

Fenya has never logged a lot of PlayStation time without me, but had expressed an interest in a game she'd read about called What Remains of Edith Finch, which it turns out I had either received free with my PS Plus membership or purchased on sale some time ago without playing.

It is a game that sees the title character, a 17 year-old girl exploring the unusual and immense family home that she and her mother had left hurriedly seven years earlier. As she does, she learns the family history her mother was not willing to tell her directly, and discovers that a lot of her relations perished early and unusually.

The level of detail paid to the house itself, in terms of personal items, photographs, and memorabilia makes the entire affair feel extremely intimate - there is a real sensation of peeking into the pasts of fully realized people, even though they are fictional characters. The textures, colours, materials and clever use of lighting provide a level of verisimilitude (in the setting, at least) that no amount of photorealism could hope to match.

There is little to no action, no tracking of points and no fatal mishaps to befall Edith as she discovers her peculiar family history and a bittersweet story unfolds. But all four of us sat and watched Fenya explore the secret passageways lining a mysterious and troubled.

The overall effect is almost like a magically realistic anthology, a familial Twilight Zone season, but as intriguing as the story is, I don't think it would work in any other medium. There is so much good work done by the excellent narration and creative uses of text that even as spectators, we found ourselves completely invested in seeing the tale through to its conclusion, even when doing so carried us into the very next day. 

It was a great experience, and if you enjoy video games at all, or are curious about ones that refute Roger Ebert's infamous assertion that they cannot be art, What Remains of Edith Finch is available on multiple platforms, and it comes with the heartiest recommendations from our entire family unit, even if you aren't housebound with Covid.