Gnome Place Like Home!

Yesterday I allowed myself to be emotionally blackmailed in to going to see the movie Gnomeo and Juliet with daughters #1 & 2. So, today, rather than treating myself to 90 minutes in the company of Colin Firth in The King's Speech, as would have been my d'rathers for my 12 year anniversary outing with hubby, I found myself fulfilling my promise and staring at a number of cavorting gnomes on the big screen in Marble Falls. One of the gnomes was particularly distracting as he was sporting a flesh- colored, spandex one piece swimsuit and a beard.....

I'll be honest and admit that I took some work to do via my I-phone but it only took about ten minutes before I found myself being sucked in to the plot. Like an idiot I hadn't put 2 and 2 together and figured out that a movie featuring garden gnomes to a large degree MUST be shot in England and the characters have English accents. Here in Texas anyhow I have NEVER seen a garden gnome. I don't know about the rest of America. This piece of kitsch is unique to England - and dare I say especially the southern counties from where I hail.

I mean, garden gnomes are a point of humor back home, synonymous as they are with prissy and snooping neighbors in a semi-detached suburban context. Mrs Bucket from PBS's "Keeping up Appearances" would probably have a small army of them in her garden. No-one of real taste and class would be seen dead with one nicely appointed in the hydrangeas or rhododendron bushes! To illustrate my point, a quick Google of garden gnomes informed me that the Chelsea Flower show, England's most prestigious horticultural event banned them in 1990 because they were so hideous!

Still, in the movie the gnomes were rather cute and I allowed myself a quick wistful longing to acquire some just so that it could be one more cultural experience of English-ness for my kiddoes who prior to this adventure had never even heard of 'em. Then again, I only really want gnomes who can speak and interact like the lovely James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine and Maggie Smith who played the protagonist gnomes in the movie. What a cast and what a shame the movie isn't doing great statistically - we were 3 out of 10 people in the audience!!

Still - what started out as an exercise in resentment for me in not really wanting to go to see this particular movie turned in to a jolly old trip down Memory Lane thanks to Gnomeo's director Elton John - yeah - surprise!! Red buses, cars driving on the wrong side, tea pots and strange terracotta figurines in tunics and pointy hats. Awwwww! It's true after all that there's Gnome place like home!