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What Are We? | Chapter 18 : Eclipsed (Part 3)
Kayla :star: 🦋 (Starry) 10/07/17
Oof, final part I promise. Hope you enjoyed. Writing this was mentally draining.
You can find the previous chapters here : Chapter List
And my story is on Wattpad if you prefer to read it there : What Are We? Star vs the Forces of Evil
~•~
Star's blue eyes slowly creeped open, and reality slowly flooded her vision. She was still alive, she had not lost yet. Eclipsa stood in front of her, her hand outstretched, ready to finish her off. Fatigue was taking over Star's mind. Her mind was racing.
Marco hung there, a hole exposing his bare, singed chest through his T shirt. Bloodcurdling gasps for air escaped his quivering lips. Star saw it within his eyes that his life force was declining rapidly.
"Marco? Oh no.... please don't... why did you... I'm alone.... I'm completely alone..."
The young, orphaned princess felt her mind physically break. Every last bit of sanity within her was diminished as she felt the adrenaline corse through her veins, and her insanity start to fire within her synapses. This woman had taken literally everything from her. Her mother, her kingdom, and now Marco Ubaldo Diaz. Her very own blood had robbed her of everything in her life that kept her sane. Marco was... she didn't know. She had nothing left. Mewni was in peril, and so was she.
Star's lips turned up into a smile as she left out a crippled giggle, her eye twitching slightly to the dismay of Tom, who was a new onlooker of the scene. He reached out a hand, but then took it back as he thought it was best not to try to comfort her in her insane state, considering the circumstances that lied before them.
"You have taken EVERYTHING FROM ME," the blonde had squeaked, tears of sadness leaking through her boiling manifesto, "What more do you want, granny?"
Eclipsa had looked at her great granddaughter, her expression softening as she slowly lowered her hand. Those words, they seemed all too familiar. She gently pulled it in front of her eyes, before bringing them both up to eye them closely. The dark purple color of her hands was vividly pulsating to her disgust, and she gently shut her eyes, letting out a dry, shaking sigh.
"You have everything. You have Mewni for the monsters, my mother... and now my... my... Marco," Star whimpered, before laughing slightly. The light above the unroofed castle turned from a pearly white color from the brilliance of Mewni's moons, to a crimson color. Star was too hysteric to pay attention to the lighting, and she drew her wand in front of her, readying her final attempt to end this once and for all.
The queen of darkness had dropped to her knees as her eyes welled with tears, looking up at the angered girl. She gently rested her hands in her lap as she began to be flustered with sobs. Her lip quivered as she began to speak. "I...I..."
"I don't WANT to hear what you have to say Eclipsa! Just shut up," She snapped, not being able to contain herself anymore. With a swift motion, she had shoved her wand to the queen's forehead as if it were a gun, laughing as her cheeks became wet with tears. "I will destroy you, just as you have destroyed Mewni! My life... M-my future... my..."
Eclipsa had readily accepted her fate, and didn't even flinch at Star's motion. There was nothing she could or wanted to do right now, she was weakened. Reality had hit her like a steamroller, and she didn't deny it one bit.
"S-Star, dear... I am sorry... I did not mean for this to-"
"I told you to shut up! I don't want to hear your sob story! Why shouldn't I blast you to bits right this second?! Huh," Star spat.
Eclipsa had focused her gaze to the ground as she spoke. "This was not what I wanted to happen. Not at all... I just wanted to make Mewni a place where all could be free to live life how they deemed worthy. With the death of my mother and love, I have experienced lost on both sides, and realized how traumatic it could be for both Mewmans and monsters. I just... wanted to bring serenity to the monsters too... but I guess I had failed. I ended up bringing more tyranny to the kingdom."
The princess' hard, lock-on gaze did not falter as she looked upon her ancestor with a stone-cold glare, decorated with an eerie smile on her face. She was not buying any of the queen's words.
The dark queen had continued. "I just wanted to complete the promise I had made to myself within my reign, that I was robbed off far too soon because of who I chose to love. It was unfair, unjust... but I guess not unwarranted. I ended up doing more harm to good. Maybe that is why Glossaryck and the rest of the high commission lost faith in me, and maybe that is why Mewni had feared me. I will never be more than just a failure. A nuisance."
Star had closed her eyes, letting out a slight chuckle. Did she really think she was going to buy her sob story a second time? Why was she listening to this when she could have been blasted to bits minutes ago? This woman had hurt her in ways that were unimaginable, and she needed to get revenge. The old Star was gone. She had grew wings and quite literally had grown up. There were no second chances within the adult realm of things.
"So shoot me," the queen had declared, "I am not supposed to be alive anyways. I was supposed to be dead three hundred years ago. I do not know what I was thinking that things would be better if I were set free once more. I only caused heartache for you, my great granddaughter. You will for sure make a fine queen, now that your mother had passed because of my foolishness. A new era has come, Star Butterfly. Your era."
The smile had left Star's face as the last bit of words had escaped the queen's lips. A fine queen... what could she have meant by that? She was frozen like a deer in the headlights. The thought of being queen frightened her ever since she had first gotten her wand for her 14th birthday, and she knew the time was fast approaching.
"And maybe... if I weren't so idiotic, you shall rule it with Marco as well."
Star did not reply to her ancestor. She was still deeply hurt by her and would probably never forgive her for what she done, ever. She had gently nodded her head once, acknowledging what she had said.
She had shut her eyes as her feet lifted off of the ground, her wand still tightly bound in her hand. The crimson light had shone on her figure, mirroring that of the time when her and Marco had danced together for the first time. A reddish energy had encircled the princess, encasing her in an enchanting aura.
The moon directly above her turned a darker shade of red, before emitting a blinding light. It magnified a powerful focus blast directly at the back of the girl's wand, reflecting back out of the wand crystal, and releasing itself right in the path of the dark queen.
The power of the spell was immense, the energy of the blast completely destroyed Eclipsa's clothing. That was the first to be singed. Then came skin, blood, ligaments, muscles, and veins, then bones, completely turned to ash. All was blown away in a blinding, powerful spell until nothing of the queen was left. She was gone for eternity, only to be remembered by her tapestry.
The spell had run out, and to the ground an exhausted girl fell. Star had dropped to her knees, her hair shielding her face as she struggled to catch her breath. That had to be the most powerful spell she had ever unleashed, and like the focus blast she had used to destroy Toffee, she didn't know how to control it. She didn't know where it had came from, but she may have an idea.
"Star," Tom called, frantically running over to the girl. He kneeled in front of her, helping her stand on her feet. "Are you okay? That spell was amazing! You destroyed her, all by yourself. I'm starting to think you didn't need us because you would have taken care of it!"
The girl smiling weakly at the demon as she gently embraced him. "Yeah, I'm fine... I think," she looked at herself from across the room at a broken mirror. Although her face was branded with wounds and scars, her left cheek mark was back to normal, now it's usual, peachy pink color. She would have smiled, but her mind was still trying to process what happened. Marco was... he was...
"Ugh... what happened," a voice had said, echoing slightly. Star had recognized that voice anywhere, and a smile of immediately appeared on her face. She broke out of the demon's hug and turned her head to the source of the sound.
"Marco? You're okay," the exasperated girl said in belief as she looked upon the boy. He coughed a few times, lifting his head a bit as his blurry vision caught a glimpse of the relived Star running towards him.
"Yeah, I'm fine Star," the boy managed to choke out as the girl hugged him, "just a little banged up."
"I thought I lost you," Star whispered, untying his hands from the bindings, "and... I didn't know what I would do without you, Marco."
Marco sighed and frowned a bit as he brought his hand up to stroke her hair. He felt bad for worrying her, but he would rather die than have something happen to Star again, and he knew that she knew this too. He didn't bother answering, and the two teens held each other in their arms, the light of the crimson moon illuminating their figures. Night was over, and the crack of dawn was slowly rising over the destroyed kingdom.
Tom looked at the scene and smiled at himself as he crossed his arms. He was finally content with the fact that Star would never be his, and it made him feel like he had accomplished something great.
"Hey Tom, get over here," Star said with a smile, causing the demon to rub the back of his head.
"Group hugs aren't my thing," the demon said through his teeth, "you two stay there, I should really be getting back home. Maybe my ma and pa could help you rebuild the castle."
"Get over here I said," the princess giggled again, holding one arm out. Tom rolled his eyes and walked over, kneeling with the teens and joining the hug reluctantly.
A few seconds pasted, and Star felt something pull her into a bear hug. She turned her head and was overwhelmed with joy as her eyes caught a wondrous sight. "Papa!"
River had smiled though a cascade of tears as he pulled his daughter into a hug, and the young princess happily returned it. "My shining Star! You don't know how happy I am to see you. I am so proud. You have saved Mewni from another dark era."
Star nervously smiled as she hugged her father, her happiness slowly fading. "Yeah... I guess I did. But... mom... she's not coming back."
River broke away to look his daughter in the eyes. Her eyes were glistening as they began to well with tears once again. River gave her a gentle smile before softly speaking again, in contrast to his normal happy, upbeat personality. "... I know, dear. This has been a terrible lost within our family. And... you shall take her place as the new queen. I have faith in you, you will lead Mewni in a way that has not been done before. And you will do a fine job, my shining Star."
A lump formed in her throat. Apprehension was beginning to take her over, and her heart raced as she felt someone else hug her. Marco had limped over and surrounded her as well, and they both embraced the girl. Star had readily accepted the hug from both of them and sighed, her eyes looking down at the urn in her purse. Her strongest form of guidance was gone, and she didn't know how to handle this. She needed help, help from her mother, and she wasn't sure if she could hear her pleas.
There was so much to rebuild, so much to recover from, and she was alone in it all. Her eyes looked up at the crimson moon once again that had seemed to be following them.
#DWA
#DayWithoutArt
#curatorreview
nunezadrian497
Amazing conclusion! :clap: :blush: :satisfied:
:sunglasses: :headphones: DJ ULTRA2927XXY :headphones: :sunglasses:
Where's the next chapter? I am not rushing you, it's that I LOVE this story!
Kayla :star: 🦋 (Starry) Author
I gave up.
Jk it's almost done I just gave writers block and I'm struggling to finish it.
Reply to: StarryEyedButterfly
I was about to say; NOOOOO WHY!?!?!?
STAR_FAN_11
So do you know when the next chapter will be ready to post?
Probably Friday
What a AWESOME ENDING! :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:
It's not over yet ;)
Link10265 #yee
So this is the last chapter to the whole story
No there's going to be two more chapters and an epilogue :blush:
Ok I just wanted to know because this could be a ending but I want a Starco wedding
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The Report Chat, The QnA Chat and The SEC Chat


LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Talk continued Tuesday night as leaders of Jefferson County Public Schools look for a solution to overcrowding and aging infrastructure in the district.
"Our kids deserve better than the buildings that we have right now," Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio said.
A potential plan to build three new elementary schools and a new middle school is on the table.
The $120 million project would affect students in 11 current buildings. Over the last couple weeks, Pollio and his team visited each one.
At the board retreat Tuesday night, Pollio and the board members discussed the community feedback on the plan that has been collected so far.
Pollio said it's been mostly positive in South Dixie, where students at Watson Lane and Wilkerson would merge into one new building.
Merging Wheatly and Roosevelt-Perry would mean a $60 million investment for west Louisville and a partnership with the new YMCA.
Still, there's a lot to consider.
"The two schools in district one that are going to be combined for a newer building -- there is some strong history with the naming of both of those schools and how will we come up with a name that is creative to not lose that," board Chair Diane Porter asked.
Gilmore Lane parents have been the most vocal since changes that impact their families could be coming sooner than the rest.
The idea is to move Liberty High students into the current Gilmore Lane building.
By the end of this school year, some Gilmore students would transfer to Indian Trail, but the rest would be spread out between other nearby schools.
Pollio said the growing pains will be worth it.
Other changes in the plan include separating the middle and high school students at Minor Daniels into two separate buildings, renovating the Academy at Shawnee and making Breckinridge Metro the permanent home for the W.E.B. DuBois Academy.
Pollio said he hopes to have a proposal ready to present at the March business meeting, where he will take more questions and feedback from the community.


This program runs on a monthly basis and we have had over 250 participants in the last 3 years benefit from it. The businesses they run or work for benefit from the strategies and skills taught to maximise their potential in the market place. The next edition takes place on the 26th April 2019. For enquiries, call Jide on 08136531023, or send an email to info@cppl.com.ng. It's a creation of Customer Passion Point Limited, a firm of Value Creation Consultants committed to capabilities development and helping business understand and leverage their customers/clients' passion points to create value consistently.


As a Columbus criminal defense attorney, Probst Law Office places a high priority on helping our clients understand the criminal defense process. After all, knowing the process can not only help to alleviate your nerves, it also equips you with the knowledge you need to better work with your defense attorney.
That's why we're starting a series of posts on the criminal defense process. Our attorney, Michael Probst, believes finding competent and skilled legal counsel shouldn't be difficult. After all, there's so much to deal with when you're facing criminal charges.
In our first post in this series, we're going to talk about arraignments. This is usually the first part of the criminal defense process that actually occurs in front of a judge.
The primary purpose of an arraignment is to give the person who is accused of a crime a formal reading of what they are being charged with.
During the arraignment, the accused will also be asked what type of plea they want to enter into: guilty, not guilty, or no contest. This is also the part where the prosecutor decides whether or not they are actually going to try your case, depending upon how you plea.
An arraignment may not seem like a big deal, but there's actually a lot of important stuff happening. At the arraignment you and/or your attorney can learn about the prosecutor trying the case or future dates for pretrial hearings or the trial itself. It can also give the defense an opportunity to make a good first impression — or leave a bad one.
What are the Benefits of Having an Attorney During the Arraignment Process?
Your defense attorney will be able to tell you whether or not your rights as the accused were violated during any part of the process. The importance of this cannot be understated. If you are robbed of your rights during any part of the process, your defense attorney can use this to reduce the sentence or get the case thrown out entirely.
During certain cases, your counsel is also able to appear on your behalf during this portion of the process. However, it's important to talk to your lawyer to ensure this is the case.
While there are few things more important than finding a solid, knowledgeable defense attorney, it shouldn't be a difficult process. At Probst Law Office our attorneys are here to help you through the entire legal process, including arraignments.
If you or someone you know is facing criminal charges, contact the Michael Probst Law Office as soon as you can. We'll be there for the entire process.


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ICGA HONORS DAVE MOOSE FOR COMMITMENT TO ENVIRONMENT
December 31st, 2015 | Today's News
The Illinois Corn Growers Association has awarded Dave Moose, a farmer from Auburn, Ill., with the Association's Environment Award. The award recognizes individuals who exhibit commitment to...
IN DEFENSE OF FOOD HITS PBS, LOOK FOR FARMLAND ONLINE
December 30th, 2015 | Today's News
PBS will begin airing today at 9pm a documentary titled, "In Defense of Food," which is based on Michael Pollan's book of the same name. You'll remember Pollan as the guy that really kicked off...
ICGA AWARDS BROADCASTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN MEDIA
The Illinois Corn Growers Association's 2015 Excellence in Media Award was given to Steve Bridge, Agribusiness Director at WFMB AM/FM, at the 2015 ICGA Annual Meeting. The award is given each...
MARK YOUR CALENDAR: DRONE EXPO IN DECATUR
As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finalizes its rules for using small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), agricultural and non-agricultural users of this emerging technology are invited to...
REGISTER YOUR DRONE OR FACE FINES FROM FAA
IL Corn wants to make farmers aware that the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced mandatory drone registration for small unmanned aircraft (UAS)...
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE TO AG STUDENTS
December 23rd, 2015 | Today's News
Agriculture students are encouraged to apply for 66 college scholarships offered by the IAA Foundation. The scholarships, ranging from $1,000 to $7,500 per year, will be awarded in total of...
IL CORN ENCOURAGES PARTICIPATION IN NASS CONSERVATION SURVEY
December 22nd, 2015 | Today's News
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is contacting farmers and ranchers from now through February as part of a national survey of conservation...
REMEMBER MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS WHEN MAKING HOLIDAY TRAVEL PLANS
As a member of the Illinois Corn Growers Association you receive special benefits, including a seed coupon to use against purchases for your farm. Your ICGA membership also entitles you to...
CORN YIELD CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED
The top Illinois entrant in the National Corn Growers Association's Corn Yield Contest grew 325 bushels per acre this year. James Cecil of Rock Island brings home that honor with his Pioneer...
IL CORN STANDS WITH SENATE, AGAINST WOTUS RULE
IL Corn and Illinois farmers remain as staunchly opposed to the WOTUS rule as ever and are certainly disappointed to see that it was included in the negotiated language of the omnibus package...
ICGA PRESIDENT JEFF JARBOE ON OMNIBUS AND TAX BILLS
Illinois Corn Growers Association President Jeff Jarboe made the following statement after taking a look at the details of the agreements made on the omnibus and tax extender bills by...
ICGA RECOGNIZES BORGMAN WITH ETHANOL AWARD
Don Borgman, farmer and former Director of Industry Relations for North America AT John Deere, was recognized by the Illinois Corn Growers Association for his work in support of the ethanol...
CORN LEADER HONORED BY FARM BUREAU
Wendell Shauman, a former Illinois Corn Marketing Board Chairman, was honored recently by the Illinois Farm Bureau as a recipient of the Eagle Award in recognition of his excellence on issue...
CORN CHECKOFF BUILDING ETHANOL FUELING INFRASTRUCTURE
While the Illinois Corn Growers Association works in Springfield and Washington, DC, to enhance opportunities for corn based ethanol in our nation's fuel supply, the Illinois Corn Marketing Board,...
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE ENTRIES IN FIELDS-OF-CORN PHOTO CONTEST
With entries now closed for the Fields-of-Corn Photo Contest, the National Corn Growers Association invites everyone to help select the submissions which best tell the story of farming and...
CONSERVATION RESERVE PROGRAM: YEARS OF SUCCESSFUL ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION
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This month, farmers are able to enroll or re-enroll in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), one of the nation's largest voluntary conservation programs. "Over the past 30 years, farmers,...
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10 THINGS I DIDN'T KNOW BEFORE I TOURED ILLINOIS FARMS
Using Illinois Corn checkoff funds, women from the Chicagoland area are touring Illinois livestock and grain farms through the Illinois Farm Families program – and those tours are making a...
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOUR FARM'S SOIL
The Soil Health Partnership is commemorating World Soil Day by encouraging farmers to consider new ways to make their land healthier. World Soil Day, Dec. 5, celebrates the importance of soil...
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This Thursday, you can get a surprise tattoo from the one and only Scott Campbell.
Indeed, it's a pretty risky move. But considering you could walk away with a free Scott Campbell tattoo, we'd say it's worth it.


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Can the US Senate convict an impeachment after the impeached has left office? [duplicate]
Asked 10 days ago
This question already has an answer here:
Can a President be impeached after leaving office? (1 answer)
Closed 10 days ago.
It has been widely reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump following the rioting in the Capitol on Wednesday. However, it is unlikely that the Senate would be able to reach a verdict on the impeachment before his term ends in 12 days.
When President Trump's term ends, does that automatically end any impeachment trials that may be under way? Or would the Senate be able to continue with the trial, and then (in the event of conviction) disqualify Trump from future office?
united-states president impeachment
edited Jan 8 at 19:38
Joe CJoe C
That doesn't really answer the question. It's important to remember that an impeachment is just the beginning of the process, equivalent to an indictment in criminal law. So it would be possible to have the House impeach Trump before his term ends, and then hold the Senate trial afterwards (if at all). But I don't know if that idea has ever been tested. The part about disqualification to hold further office if convicted would seem to support the idea, though. – jamesqf Jan 8 at 19:50
@divibisan No, because my question assumes that the impeachment itself has occurred while the accused was still in office. – Joe C Jan 8 at 20:12
I almost asked this exact question today but figured it'd be a better question for Law, and sure enough found this similar question over there (seems like the answer is "probably yes, but it's never needed to be tested"). – Giter Jan 8 at 21:13
No attempt has ever been made to proceed with an impeachment trial after the accused has left office. The proceedings against President Nixon were halted when he resigned.
Such an action would not be pointless, as an impeachment can result in disqualification from office which a resignation or departure at the end of a term does not.
However, there is no set procedure or timeline for the impeachment process. In theory it could be done as quickly as someone could draw up articles of impeachment, the House vote to accept them, and the Senate vote to convict. There is no requirement to have any debate if the Senate thinks it not needed. Whether any such procedure is at all likely is a very different question
While Can a President be impeached after leaving office? is not quite the same question, the answer is much the same.
Joe C
answered Jan 8 at 19:57
David SiegelDavid Siegel
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged united-states president impeachment .
Can a President be impeached after leaving office?
Would an impeachment process automatically end with the end of a president's term?
What happens after impeachment?
Impeachment and Removal from Office
Can a House-impeached but not Senate-convicted president run for a second term?
Could a delayed impeachment trial cause Trump to be removed from office in his second term?
Can the House Democrats still call witnesses/can Bolton still testify?
If a president is removed from office after being impeached, when does the vice president take office?
Who would become president if the election were delayed past January 20?
What authority does the Vice President have to mobilize the National Guard?


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Khalil Abdullah Joins Seminary as Major Gifts Officer
August 22nd, 2016 @ 4:24pm
Hartford Seminary is happy to announce that Khalil Abdullah of Atlanta will be joining our Development Office as a Major Gifts Officer.
"Khalil's talents and interests as well as his work experience and his experience as a religious leader fit very well with this position," President Heidi Hadsell said.
Reporting to the Director of Development and External Relations, the Major Gift Officer will participate as a member of the External Relations staff team with special responsibility to develop programs for Islamic Giving.
Khalil is in the thesis stage of his Master of Arts in Religious Studies at Hartford Seminary with a focus on Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations. He has a BA in Journalism from the University of North Texas.
In addition to his experience as a management trainer for Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Atlanta, Khalil is a member of the Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta, co-director of the Faith Institute for the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam, and has been a Teaching Assistant in the Building Abrahamic Partnerships program at Hartford Seminary. He was also a Scholar-in-Residence at the Youth Theological Initiative at Emory University and a researcher for the After Malcom Project at George State University.


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IREG-8 Conference
"University Rankings and International Academic Relations
A Bridging Tool or a Hindrance"
SATURDAY, 7 MAY (Optional tourist programme)
Half a day visit to Lisbon - Reservations should be made directly with Agência Abreu.
Full day visit to Sintra and Cascais - Reservations should be made directly with Agência Abreu.
THE CITY OF LISBON
Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal and lies on the north bank of the Tagus estuary where it broadens to enter the Atlantic Ocean. Lisbon is Portugal's largest city and its cultural, administrative, commercial and industrial hub. The name comes from "Olissipo", which has its origins in the Phoenician words "Allis Ubbo", meaning "enchanting port". Built on seven hills overlooking the Tagus river, Lisbon is a historic capital where 800 years of cultural influences mingle with modern trends and life styles creating spectacular contrasts.
The international press highlights Lisbon as a dynamic and cosmopolitan city, with a warm climate all year round, where visitors can enjoy the colorful streets, the yellow trams that run along the cobblestone floors and explore historic monuments and museums.
Lisbon also has a vibrant night life and a rich musical culture, of which we highlight Fado, urban popular song of Portugal that was recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011.
http://ireg-observatory.org/en_old/ireg-8-practical-information#sigFreeIddac87cff1d
TOURISTIC ATTRACTIONS
St. George's Castle
Located in the historic Alfama district, this brooding Moorish castle dominates the city from its vantage point atop Lisbon's highest hill.
Address: St. George's Castle
Bus: 737
Tram: E12, E28
09h00 – 21h00 (March - October)
09h00 – 18h00 (November - February)
Last admission: 30 minutes before closing time
Sé Catedral (Lisbon Cathedral)
Address: Largo da Sé
Schedule: 10h00 - 19h00 (Every day)
By day, this section of Lisbon is relatively quiet with children playing in the streets and people shopping. By night, it changes into a crowd of revelers crammed into the neighborhood's narrow streets to go clubbing and bar hopping until wee hours.
Bus: 706, 727, 758, 773
Tram: E28
This elevator is located inside a gothic tower, and provides quick and easy transport between Lisbon's Baixa and Bairro Alto districts. It is 45m high and has a belvedere that offers a magnificent view over Lisbon.
Address: Rua do Ouro and Rua de Santa Justa
Bus: 711, 736, 737, 746, 759, 783
Tram: E12, E15, E28
Subway: Baixa/Chiado (Green and Blue Lines)
07h00 – 22h00 (October-May). Last entrance 21h45.
07h00 – 23h00 (June-September) and Easter. Last entrance 22h45.
Address: Rua Augusta, 2
Schedule: 09h00 – 19h00
National Museum of Contemporary Art – Museu do Chiado
Address: Rua Serpa Pinto, 4
10h00 - 18h00 (Tuesday - Sunday). Last entrance 17h30.
Lisboa Story Center
Address: Praça do Comércio, 78
Schedule: 10h00 - 20h00. Last entrance 19h00.
Expo '98/ Parque das Nações
Legacy of 1998 Lisbon World Exposition under the Oceans theme. Visit the Oceanarium, the Lisbon Casino and the Pavillion of Knowledge Ciência Viva alongside with the Tagus River.
Bus: 400, 705, 708, 725, 728, 744, 750, 759, 781, 782, 794
Subway: Oriente (Red line)
Address: Esplanada D. Carlos I
10h00 - 20h00 (Summer time). Last entrance 19h00.
10h00 - 19h00 (Winter time). Last entrance 18h00.
Address: Alameda dos Oceanos
15h00 - 03h00 (Sunday - Thursday)
16h00 - 04h00 (Friday, Saturday and holiday's eves).
Pavillion of Knowledge Ciência Viva
10h00 - 18h00 (Wednesday - Friday)
11h00 - 19h00 (weekends and holidays)
* Closed on Mondays.
Address: Praça do Império
10h00 – 17h00 (October - April).
10h00 – 18h00 (May - September).
National Archaeological Museum
10h00 – 18h00 (Tuesday - Sunday). Last entrance 17h45 at the main door. Some exhibits close from 12h00 to 14h00.
CCB – Centro Cultural de Belém
08h00 – 20h00 (business days)
10h00 – 18h00 (Weekends and holidays).
National Pantheon of Santa Engrácia
Built in 1681, Santa Engrácia Church is the National Pantheon, where the elevator inside whisks visitors to the top of the dome to enjoy a sweeping 360-degree panorama of the city below.
Address: Campo de Santa Clara
Bus: 712, 734
Subway: Sta. Apolónia (Blue line)
10h00 – 18h00 (May - October). Last entrance 17h40.
10h00 – 17h00 (November - April). Last entrance 16h40.
* Closed on Mondays
Baixa-Chiado
Located between the Rossio and the Praça do Comércio, this section is a shopper's Paradise with several pedestrian streets. Visit the Rua Augusta Arch and its belvedere. You can also find in this area the National Museum of Contemporary Art – Museu do Chiado and Lisboa Story Centre. To know Portugal's memory visit A vida Portuguesa shop, where you can turn back time and grab a classic Portuguese product as a gif. Enjoy an ice-cream at Santini or have a coffee with the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa at A Brasileira.
Tram: E12, E15, E25, E28
Historic and monumental walking area, with a pleasant neighbourhood and calm surroundings.
One of the most imposing symbols of the city is here - the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, as well as the Tower of Belém and Padrão dos Descobrimentos. The first two are World Heritage sites. You can also visit the Maritime Museum, the National Archaelogical Museum and CCB - Centro Cultural de Belém, where you'll find the Museum Coleção Berardo. You cannot visit the city without trying the famous Pastéis de Belém.
Bus: 714, 727, 728, 729, 751
Train: Belém (Cascais line)
10h00 –17h30 (October - April). Last entrance 17h00.
10h00–18h30 (May - September). Last entrance 18h00.
Tower of Belém
Address: Av. Brasília
10h00 – 17h30 (October - April). Last entrance 17h00.
10h00 – 18h30 (May - September). Last entrance 18h00.
10h00 – 18h00 (October - February). Tuesday to Sunday. Last entrance 17h30.
10h00 – 19h00 (March - September). Every day except Mondays on March. Last entrance 18h30.
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga
The museum is home to the most important Portuguese public collection of art, as well as decorative arts from Europe, Africa and Far East, ranging between the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Contemporary Era.
Address: Rua das Janelas Verdes
Schedule: 14h00 – 18h00 (Tuesday)
10h00 – 18h00 (Wednesday - Sunday)
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Museum
Calouste Gulbenkian is one of the most important foundations in Europe, whose headquarters in Lisbon house a museum, a Modern Art Centre and an Art Library. The foundation was bequeathed by the last will and testament of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (1869-1955), an Armenian collector who assembled more than 6000 pieces from all over the world and that are now in the museum.
Address: Av. de Berna, 45ª
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
09h00 – 13h00 and 14h30 – 17h30 (Monday - Friday)
10h00 – 18h00. (Tuesday - Sunday). Last entrance 17h30.


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For some years now I have been working with black monotype ink on glass. I like the trace of the brush on the smooth and very resistant surface of the support. When the ink is completely dry, I scrape off the ink mass to define the exact shape of my patterns. Like a sculptor who cuts a coarse shape to obtain the desired proportions, I scrape the ink off with a dry point. I like this physical resistance of the tool on the support, this subtraction that gradually gives life to the mass and then to the details. The picture reveals itself and slowly appears.
My work is often defined in opposites and complementary elements: from shadow (ink) to light (transparency of glass). Curves that respond to straight lines. Liquid material on a hard and impermeable support. A framed object that does not need to be hung. A black drawing that plays with transparency, which tends to elude rather than imposing itself.
I like the idea that my monotypes live their lives among other objects. That they enter into dialogue with each other. A drawing hanging on the wall no longer catches one's eye after a few weeks, while my monotypes live their lives and constantly reinvent themselves moved from the table to the bookshelf, from the bedroom to the kitchen.


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The creation story is in every native American culture. Here are a few examples featuring Muskrat.
Creation of the World (Blackfoot)
"In the beginning, all the world was water. One day the Old Man, also called Napi, was curious to find out what might be beneath the water. So he sent animals to dive beneath the surface. First duck then otter, then Badger dived in vain. The Old Man then sent Muskrat diving to the depths. After a long time muskrat rode to the surface holding between his paws, a little ball of mud, and then blew upon it. The mud began to swell, growing larger, and larger, until it became the whole earth. Then the Old Man made the people."
The Creation Story – Turtle Island (Ojibway/Anishinabe)
Long ago, after the Great Mystery, or Kitchi-Manitou, first peopled the earth, the Anishinabe, or Original People, strayed from their harmonious ways and began to argue and fight with one another. Brother turned against brother and soon the Anishinabe were killing one another over hunting grounds and others disagreements. Seeing that harmony, brotherhood, sisterhood, and respect for all living things no longer prevailed on Earth, Kitchi-Manitou decided to purify the Earth. He did this with water.
The water came in the form of a great flood, or mush-ko'-be-wun', upon the Earth destroying the Anishinabe people and most of the animals as well. Only Nanaboozhoo, the central figure in many of the Anishinabe oral traditions, was able to survive the flood, along with a few animals and birds who managed to swim and fly. Nanaboozhoo floated on a huge log searching for land, but none was to be found as the Earth was now covered by the great flood. Nanaboozhoo allowed the remaining animals and birds to take turns resting on the log as well. Finally, Nanaboozhoo spoke.
"I am going to do something," he said. "I am going to swim to the bottom of this water and grab a handful of earth. With this small bit of Earth, I believe we can create a new land for us to live on with the help of the Four Winds and Kitchi-Manitou."
So Nanaboozhoo dived into the water and was gone for a long time. Finally he surfaced, and short of breath told the animals that the water is too deep for him to swim to the bottom. All were silent. Finally, Mahng, the Loon spoke up. "I can dive under the water for a long way, that is how I catch my food. I will try to make it to the bottom and return with some Earth in my beak."
The Loon disappeared and was gone for a very long time. Surely, thought the others, the Loon must have drowned. Then they saw him float to the surface, weak and nearly unconscious. "I couldn't make it, there must be no bottom to this water," he gasped. Then Zhing-gi-biss, the helldiver came forward and said "I will try next, everyone knows I can dive great distances." So the helldiver went under. Again, a very long time passed and the others thought he was surely drowned. At last he too floated to the surface. He was unconscious, and not till he came to could he relate to the others that he too was unable to fetch the Earth from the bottom.
Many more animals tried but failed, including Zhon-gwayzh', the mink, and even Mi-zhee-kay", the turtle. All failed and it seemed as though there was no way to get the much needed Earth from the bottom. Then a soft muffled voice was heard. "I can do it," it spoke softly. At first no one could see who it was that spoke up. Then, the little Wa-zhushk", muskrat stepped forward. "I'll try," he repeated. Some of the other, bigger, more powerful animals laughed at muskrat. Nanaboozhoo spoke up. "Only Kitchi-Manitou can place judgment on others. If muskrat wants to try, he should be allowed to."
So, muskrat dove into the water. He was gone much longer than any of the others who tried to reach the bottom. After a while Nanaboozhoo and the other animals were certain that muskrat had given his life trying to reach the bottom. Far below the water's surface, Muskrat, had in fact reached the bottom. Very weak from lack of air, he grabbed some Earth in his paw and with all the energy he could muster began to swim for the surface. One of the animals spotted Muskrat as he floated to the surface. Nanaboozhoo pulled him up onto the log. "Brothers and sisters," Nanaboozhoo said, "Muskrat went too long without air, he is dead." A song of mourning and praise was heard across the water as Muskrat's spirit passed on to the spirit world. Suddenly Nanaboozhoo exclaimed, "Look, there is something in his paw!" Nanaboozhoo carefully opened the tiny paw. All the animals gathered close to see what was held so tightly there. Muskrat's paw opened and revealed a small ball of Earth. The animals all shouted with joy. Muskrat sacrificed his life so that life on Earth could begin anew.
Nanaboozhoo took the piece of Earth from Muskrat's paw. Just then, the turtle swam forward and said, "Use my back to bear the weight of this piece of Earth. With the help of Kitchi-Manitou, we can make a new Earth." Nanaboozhoo put the piece of Earth on the turtle's back. Suddenly, the wind blew from each of the Four Directions, The tiny piece of Earth on the turtle's back began to grow. It grew and grew and grew until it formed a mi-ni-si', or island in the water. The island grew larger and larger, but still the turtle bore the weight of the Earth on his back. Nanaboozhoo and the animals all sang and danced in a widening circle on the growing island. After a while, the Four Winds ceased to blow and the waters became still. A huge island sat in the middle of the water, and today that island is known as North America.
Traditional Indian people, including the Ojibway, hold special reverence for the turtle who sacrificed his life and made life possible for the Earth's second people. To this day, the Muskrat has been given a good life. No matter that marshes have been drained and their homes destroyed in the name of progress, the Muskrat continues to survive and multiply. The Muskrats do their part today in remembering the great flood; they build their homes in the shape of the little ball of Earth and the island that was formed from it.
The Creation (Mohawk)
Tharonhiawakon ( He Who Holds Up The Sky ) uplifted the Tree of the Standing Light, he placed his pregnant wife at the edge of the hole, and he pushed her through into the space below. Aientsik fell. Below her, all of the universe was water. The animals of the water saw her falling, but because the sky was blue, as well as the water, they did not know if she was falling from the sky, or coming up from the bottom of the lake. All of the water animals had an argument about this. The otter said that she was coming up from the bottom of the lake. The beaver agreed, as did the Muskrat. The geese and the ducks, however, said that she was falling from the sky. They flew up, and breaking the fall of Aientsik, let her rest upon their backs, and brought her gently down to the surface of the water.
In the meanwhile, a great turtle came up out of the water and volunteered to be a resting place for Aientsik, or Fertile Earth. The beaver, otter and Muskrat each dove to the bottom of the lake to try to bring up a mouthful of earth to place on the back of the turtle. The beaver failed and died. The otter failed and also died. But the Muskrat was successful. He placed the mud on the back of the turtle and Aientsik was laid down to rest.
When she woke, there was a fire next to her and a pot of corn soup. The back of the turtle had grown in size and it was visibly continuing to grow with every passing minute. Aientsik stood up on the earth, and walked about it, helping in the process of its creation. Every day when she returned to her resting place, there was a fire and a supply of corn, or some beans or squash for her to eat. Corn, beans and squash have been known ever since as the three sister-providers of the Mohawk people.
Creation (Potawatomi)
In the beginning, the Old People taught, there was no land, only water. Floating on this Great Sea was a birch bark canoe. In it, weeping, sat a man, Our Grandfather. He wept because he had no idea of his fate.
After a time Chief Muskrat appeared and climbed into the canoe. "Grandfather," he asked, "Why are you crying so?"
"I weep because I have been here a long, long while, and there is no land," the man replied.
"But there is Earth down deep under the Great Sea," responded Muskrat. "If you wish, I can swim down and bring some back to you." Our Grandfather nodded, "Yes."
Muskrat disappeared beneath the Great Sea and then bobbed up again, a gob of Earth in his mouth. "Are you alone like me?" asked Our Grandfather.
"No," replied Chief Muskrat, and he called to his fellows, the other chiefs of the animals who dwelled in the waters. They appeared, one by one. First came Beaver, then Snapping Turtle, then Otter. Each in turn dove deep into the Great Sea and then reappeared, bearing a ball of Earth clenched in his mouth.
From these gobs of Earth, explained the Old People, Our Grandfather fashioned This Island. Day after day he added to it as his Grandchildren brought more Earth, until it was large enough and solidly anchored in the Great Sea. Then he planted the Great Tree and other growing things. Using a stick, he marked out the rivers and had the Muskrats dig out their channels.
Return to Beginning of Muskrat Creation Legends
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Credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University
Doctoral student Abhinav Jindal, standing in front of a Rosetta mission image of Comet 67P, modeled the evolution of smooth terrain on that frozen world.
Cornell scientists show how terrain evolves on an icy comet
By Blaine Friedlander, Cornell Chronicle
With an eye toward a possible return mission years in the future, Cornell astronomers have shown how smooth terrains – a good place to land a spacecraft and to scoop up samples – evolve on the icy world of comets.
By applying thermal models to data gathered by the Rosetta mission – which caught up to the barbell-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko almost a decade ago – they show that the topography influences the comet's surface activity across hundreds of meters.
The research was published Aug. 16 in the Planetary Science Journal.
"You can have a uniform surface composition on comets and still have hotspots of activity," said lead author Abhinav S. Jindal, a graduate student in astronomy and member of the research group of Alexander Hayes, '03, M.Eng. '03, associate professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. "The topography is driving the activity."
Comets are icy bodies made of dust, rocks and gas left over from the solar system's formation about 4.6 billion years ago, Jindal said. They form in the solar system's outer fringes and have spent eternity cruising through the dark, cosmic freezer of space, far from the sun's heat.
"Their chemistry has not changed much from when comets formed, making them 'time capsules' preserving primordial material from the birth of the solar system," Jindal said, explaining that these bodies likely seeded early Earth with water and key building blocks of life.
"As some of these comets have been pulled into the inner solar system," he said, "their surfaces undergo changes. Science is trying to understand the driving processes."
As Comet 67P loops its way back toward the sun, as it does every 6.45 years, the body speeds by it to a point called perihelion – its closest approach – and the comet warms up. The Rosetta mission followed the comet as it rounded the sun, and studied its activity. The smooth terrains serve as locations where the most changes were observed, making them key to grasping the surface's evolution.
Jindal and the researchers examined the evolution of 16 topographic depressions in the Imhotep region – the largest smooth terrain deposit on 67P – between June 5, 2015, when activity was first observed, and Dec. 6, 2015, when the final large-scale changes were observed, Jindal said.
The comet went through a process called sublimation – in which the icy parts turned gaseous in the sun's heat. The comet's smooth Imhotep region showed a complex pattern of simultaneous eroding scarps (the steep edges of arc-shaped depressions) and material deposition.
The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission launched in March 2004, equipped with comet-landing craft named Philae. The spacecraft bided its time by exploring Mars and a few asteroids, and a decade after launch, Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P to chaperone the object as it rounded the sun. Its smaller, drone-like Philae craft landed on the comet in late 2014; Rosetta plunged to the surface in late 2016.
Jindal believes science will one day return to Comet 67P. "These comets are helping us to answer the question of where we come from," he said.
In addition to Jindal and Hayes, co-authors of "Topographically Influenced Evolution of Large-scale Changes in Comet 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko's Imhotep Region" include Samuel P. D. Birch, Ph.D. '18, and Jason M. Soderblom, Ph.D. '07, both of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Both Hayes and Jindal are members of Cornell's Carl Sagan Institute.
This research was supported by the Rosetta Data Analysis Program and the Heising-Simons Foundation.
Becka Bowyer
rpb224@cornell.edu
Dancing debris, moveable landscape shape Comet 67P
Rock stars on Mars: Students look for life on big red planet


Flores v. Reno puts our government in a difficult position. We shouldn't have to choose between ripping families apart and enforcing immigration law.
Like millions across our country, we too were horrified at the sight of thousands of children being separated from their parents. As parents ourselves, we can only imagine the pain and anguish these families faced. But, as U.S. Senators — and more importantly, as Americans — we also understand that our immigration system must also enforce our laws.
While this problem has persisted across the last five administrations, and there is legitimate criticism which can be directed towards this administration's handling of this matter, the fact remains that the very institution in which we serve — the U.S. Congress — bears much of the blame for our current immigration crisis. For years, Congress has failed to take one simple step which could have prevented the family separations we now decry: repealing the Flores v. Reno consent decree as it relates to families.
When the U.S. government first entered into the Flores consent decree it was a much-needed step towards ensuring the humane and dignified treatment of unaccompanied alien children — children often thousands of miles from their parents. That decree required immigration authorities to release children from custody within 20 days in favor of finding foster families or other placements. But in 2015, a single court in California expanded Flores to children with their families, an expansion with dramatic consequences.
That decision, which was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, effectively forces federal immigration authorities to make a stark choice: separate families by releasing only the children after 20 days or keep families together and release them all into the U.S. Neither of these options is a good choice. We should not have to choose between tearing children from their parents and enforcing our nation's lawful immigration system.
It's important to remember that no one wants to get rid of the good parts of Flores. For example, Flores required, among other things, certain minimum standards of care for unaccompanied alien children while in federal custody. No one disagrees that everyone in federal custody should be treated humanely, which is why Congress unanimously passed legislation in 2008 codifying many of these standards for unaccompanied children.
More: Family detention is not the answer to family separation. It's a failure and a disgrace.
But Congress has yet to address how to process families detained because they came here illegally. As a consequence, a single federal court can — and has — ordered us to return to the failed "catch and release" policies that have caused tens of thousands of families to make the dangerous journey to cross our southern border. By fixing the current immigration laws and legislatively modifying the Flores decree as it applies to family units, we can solve these problems in a humane and fair way.
For weeks, we have worked together with our Senate colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to solve this crisis. After countless hours of discussion, we believe the path forward is a relatively simple one. First, Congress needs to make clear that the Flores consent decree does not apply to family units. The Flores consent decree and the standards of care required for unaccompanied minor children would remain in effect, but federal authorities would have the ability to keep families together pending the outcome of their immigration case.
Second, Congress needs to codify the high humane standards we expect families to be treated with while they are kept in federal custody in family residential centers. The public is right to be concerned that individuals may receive inadequate care and shelter, and Congress should ensure that no one is treated with any less dignity than they deserve.
Third, and finally, Congress should authorize and appropriate money for more immigration judges, so that cases can be adjudicated and resolved quickly. Keeping families in federal custody temporarily is an appropriate policy solution to this crisis, but only if cases are resolved expeditiously.
Fixing these problems will end this crisis and return integrity to our nation's lawful immigration system.
Some of our colleagues criticize these solutions and claim they would result in the "indefinite detention" of families. This simply is not true and ignores well-established facts. When families are kept in federal custody they are placed on the expedited detained docket, where most cases are resolved within about 40 days.
It is clear that a legislative fix to the Flores consent decree is the only viable solution. Such a fix will allow families to stay together and will ensure no future administration has to make the Hobson's choice created by the Flores consent decree if another surge in illegal migration of family units occurs. We hope our Democratic colleagues will join with us to pass such a fix in the U.S. Senate. We can keep families together and respect the rule of law. We believe this is the way forward, and we know it is the right thing to do for our country.
Chuck Grassley is a Republican senator from Iowa. Follow him on Twitter: @ChuckGrassley. Thom Tillis is a Republican senator from North Carolina. Follow him on Twitter: @SenThomTillis. Ted Cruz is a Republican senator from Texas. Follow him on Twitter: @SenTedCruz.


Transforming the Pharmaceutical Industry Pipeline..
Fifteen years ago, the pharmaceutical industry was abuzz: Computational modeling was about to transform the drug-discovery paradigm. Compound modeling and screening in silico would save lives, years of research, millions of dollars in costs and largely put an end to animal testing.1 Yet, when in silico success stories didn't start pouring in, a kind of general malaise toward this approach fell over the pharmaceutical industry.
Most of the revolutions that happened in silico," says Douglas Krafte, Chief Scientific Officer of Icagen, Inc., "happened in the subfields such as biology and chemistry, not in the fully integrated design and generation of new drugs."2 A 2009 article published on the topic of in silico models in Drug Discovery Today confirms this phenomenon: "Although the development of computational models to aid drug discovery has become an integral part of pharmaceutical research, the application of these models often fails to produce the expected impact on productivity."3 The inability of these in silico methods to shorten the timetable from R&D to Investigative New Drug (IND) status — as the industry anticipated — made many of the larger pharmaceutical companies hold tight to more classical drug-discovery approaches, implementing computational models only as a type of follow-on when the traditional approaches failed.
Another major shortcoming of the early in silico approaches was the method's inability to detect off-target pitfalls. Compounds detected as having a high affinity for a specific target, which in silico models had predicted, produced detrimental downstream effects caused either by off-target binding or toxic metabolites.1 The early computer simulations simply weren't robust enough to test many of the possible downstream outcomes, and so, evaluating the cost-benefit ratio of in silico approaches, many larger pharmaceutical companies decided to continue on the well-trodden path.
Then, also in 2009, the venture capital firm Atlas Venture teamed up with Schrödinger LLC, a New York–based company that primarily developed chemical simulation software and computational models focused on physics simulations, and with additional seed money from Bill Gates created the in silico–based pharmaceutical company Nimbus Discovery. With its expertise in multifaceted simulations for complex chemical structures, Schrödinger — along with top-in-the-field in silico scientists — hoped to customize and expand its software suite in order to make headway in what was then a sluggish in silico drug-discovery domain.
The success of Nimbus did not go unnoticed by companies like Icagen Inc., a drug-discovery pharmaceutical company known for bringing many successful compounds to IND. In July of this year, Icagen made a transformative move that changed the face of the company by acquiring Sanofi's facility in Tucson. With the purchase of the Tucson facility, Icagen — known in the industry as the preeminent researcher and developer of compounds that target ion channels — acquired the second-best (only behind Schrödinger) high-performance computational suite for in silico drug discovery.
Besides being a transformative move, Icagen's acquisition of the Sanofi facility brought "incredible talent, experience and capabilities," says CEO Richie Cunningham, referring to the top scientists that will remain on-site at the Sanofi facility as part of the agreement. This includes a group of scientists with a very high level of expertise with in silico drug discovery "that positions Icagen as a Target to Lead Generation company at a time when there is a significant gap and need in the industry for quality leads. We at Icagen believe that selecting the right targets of interest based on market needs, combined with targets that fit our areas of expertise, is the key to our success." What the move also brought about was the Sanofi Tucson facility's reach in terms of drug discovery. Although Icagen had predominantly focused on ion channels and transporters, the facility at Tucson has a much wider range of targets that Icagen now adds to its repertoire.
The ion-channel drug market is expected to grow to $21.4B by the end of 2018, up from $12B in 2012.
In many ways, scientists using in silico approaches for drug discovery have much in common with video game developers. When performing virtual screening, millions of compounds are docked into three-dimensional models of a specific target and scored based on the interactions. Molecular dynamics closely follow target conformation over time. Such simulations can be carried out for protein ligand complexes with solvent and membrane systems. The larger the system, the more the computing power needed and the longer the calculation (some can take weeks). Most steps require state-of-the art computer graphics hardware.
By supporting a drug discovery program in silico from the very beginning, a pharmaceutical company can weed out thousands of compounds that don't have a strong affinity for the target and compounds with potential liabilities. These include off-target activities, metabolism issues and suboptimal compound physico-chemical properties.
The ion-channel drug market is expected to grow to $21.4b by the end of 2018, up from $12b in 2012.7,8 Some of the most universally difficult targets for in silico approaches are ion channels and transporters, due to challenges in mapping their three-dimensional structures. Ion channels and transporters are integral to many cellular processes, and the too-many-to-list diseases and ailments that arise when they malfunction have caused Icagen to build a considerable suite of traditional drug-screening approaches targeting them. These include an extensive portfolio of cell lines expressing difficult targets such as all the major ion channels and transporters, a label-free X-ray fluorescence method for direct ion flux measurements and assays for drug candidate screening based on several different technologies combined with robotic ultra-high-throughput screening, available at the Tucson facility.
Icagen's already-established ion channel discovery suite, paired with their now-considerable in silico capabilities, makes it an ideal partner for a pharmaceutical company looking to create compounds for an array of targets for which structural information is available. On the plate now are well-mapped-out structures for targets, whose mutations play a big role in human disease, such as inherited developmental and metabolic disorders and certain cancers. An ambitious client looking to target ion channels and transporters could find no better partner than Icagen.
Ericson, John. "Breakthroughs Might Mean the End of Animal Testing." Newsweek. 18 Mar. 2014. Web.
Unless otherwise noted, all quotes come from phone interviews conducted by the author on August 19, 2016 and September 7, 2016.
Brown, Scott P., Steven W. Muchmore, Philip J. Hajduk. "Healthy Skepticism: Assessing Realistic Model Performance." Drug Discovery Today 14.7–8 (2009): 420-427. Web.
Weisman, Robert. "Gilead to Buy Nimbus Unit for Up to $1.2b." The Boston Globe. 4 Apr. 2016. Web.
Nimbus Therapeutics Announces Initiation of Clinical Studies for ACC Inhibitor. Nimbus Therapeutics. 21 Apr. 2015. Web.
Schuhmacher, Alexander, Markus Hinder, Oliver Gassmann. Value Creation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: The Critical Path to Innovation. New Jersey: Wiley, Apr. 2016. Print.
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December 23, 2014 Brent Leuthold
Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons in Whiplash
How is greatness made? Hard work and dedication, sure, but can truly great figures of history get there through normal circumstances or is there a deeper pain that must be confronted and overcome? Is it worth pushing these figures away from the possibility of a normal life in order to serve a higher calling? The new music-based film Whiplash, one of this year's very best, deals with these concepts with brutal honesty and feverish intensity. It sometimes feels like a companion piece to Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, which also dealt with the darker side of ambition and the potential perils of perfectionism.
Miles Teller, one of the best young actors working today, plays Andrew Neiman, a freshman jazz drummer who is just starting out at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory of Music. After drumming in a practice room late one evening, he is discovered by the conductor of the school's lead jazz band Terence Fletcher, played with merciless tenacity by J.K. Simmons. Fletcher sees potential in Andrew and invites him to play in his group but after a verbally abusive confrontation with Andrew on his first sit-in, it's clear that Fletcher's teaching tactics will push him further than he's gone before.
It's hard to overstate just how good Teller and Simmons are here. Both do so much to defy the typical teacher-student role conventions seen in lesser films and instead create believable characters that are morally complex and psychologically compelling throughout. Fletcher is generally monstrous and Andrew is often sympathetic, if by necessity, but each character is given a fair trial and first-time director Damien Chazelle doesn't give us an easy sense on which character is right or wrong in what they're doing. He gives us the opportunity of perspective and allows us to make up our own minds; a refreshing concept.
Another refreshing aspect of this movie is the way it doesn't bind itself to traditional Hollywood storytelling methods. There are subplots involving Andrew's caring father and also his temporary girlfriend that serve the story purposefully but the majority of the run time is tightly focused on the relationship between these two complicated characters. It also doesn't shy away from mental and physical anguish associated with being the best in a highly competitive field. There are no convenient montages of steady progression; we see all of the tears, sweat and yes, blood, along the way.
Chazelle uses these tortuous settings to create a relentlessly tense and downright dangerous atmosphere that had me pinned down from beginning to end. There's an anxious, propulsive energy to Whiplash that gives it a bracingly unpredictable quality, especially leading up to and including the film's spellbinding climax which further showcases Teller's amazing abilities behind the drum set. Frankly, I've never seen a movie that was this singularly focused on music performance and as a musician, I was thrilled and delighted to find a film that dealt with the subject passionately and intelligently.
Ian McKellen and Luke Evans in The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies
Those who like their movie franchises unnecessarily drawn out and bloated, fear not: the final chapter of The Hobbit series is upon us at last and I fear that not even the most staunch Tolkien devotees will find much to like in the joyless obligation that is The Battle of the Five Armies. The whimsy and wonder of the previous entries has been replaced with stilted dialogue and endless barrages of computer generated chaos. In fact, this film was previously subtitled There and Back Again but unfortunately, The Battle of the Five Armies turns out to be a more fitting title after all, as the majority of the run time is dedicated to the titular conflict.
We pick back up right where the previous movie left off, with Smaug on his way to terrorize the small town of Esgaroth as Bilbo, played by Martin Freeman, and the Dwarves look on from the Lonely Mountain. After the great dragon is vanquished by Bard, played by Luke Evans, the fate of the vast treasure at Erebor becomes uncertain. Led by the fearless Thorin, played by Richard Armitage, the Dwarves defend their treasure against the Middle Earth armies of men, Elves and Orcs (frankly, I couldn't tell you after seeing the movie who the Fifth Army is).
From the Helm's Deep battle in The Two Towers to the battle at Pelennor Fields in The Return of the King, large scale showdowns were an integral part of the success of the Lord of the Rings franchise and they used to be one of director Peter Jackson's fortes. Some of the sequences in this film feel like a parody of Peter Jackson's directing style, whether its characters taking long pauses to speak amongst hundreds of characters fighting around them or the hilarious over abundance of Orc beheadings that used to be treated as a novelty in the LotR series but is literally done to death in Five Armies.
When the screen isn't filled wall to wall with incoherent and increasingly implausible action, we're treated to meaningless subplots that crop up sporadically throughout. The most noxious are those involving an Elf-Dwarf romance that inspires some amazingly mawkish lines of dialogue like "he is my king but he does not command my heart." This could possibly be forgiven if the acting was worthwhile but it consistently appears as though the majority of the actors are bored to reprise these roles. Least compelling among these actors is Lee Pace, who has proven again to be a colossal bore in his antagonistic film roles after his charming lead part on ABC's Pushing Daisies.
While plodding through its comparatively gracious runtime of 144 minutes, there's an unshakable sense of looming déjà vu as one watches this entry in the Hobbit series. It's the feeling that everything we're seeing has been done better before and even by the same production team, which is unfortunately the case here more often than not. I personally can't wait for the day when all the Hobbit films are available on Blu-Ray and someone clever on the internet condenses the three into one cohesive piece of filmmaking. Until then, I can't suggest that even diehard fans go out to see this thud of a conclusion.
Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson in Top Five
After a couple near misses in the director's chair, Chris Rock returns with his third feature Top Five, which isn't without its drawbacks but ultimately comes across as Rock's most honest film to date. The feel and premise recall the recently released Birdman, which both feature actors reflecting on their careers and striving to do more ambitious work in order for their fans and critics to take them more seriously. While the comedy here is decidedly more broad, both films know how to use comedy as a means of catharsis for their lead characters.
Rock plays Andre Allen, a washed-up comedian turned actor who threw away a successful stand-up career for a hit buddy cop franchise called "Hammy the Bear", which has him running around in a bear suit and shouting catch phrases like "It's Hammy Time!" As a backlash against the character, he chooses to star in an award-baiting, Haitian revolution movie called "Uprize" in hopes of winning back the critical admiration that he squandered with the "Hammy" series. While back home in New York to tirelessly promote the film, he is followed and questioned by New York Times reporter Chelsea Brown, played with winning charm by Rosario Dawson.
Brown starts with softball questions about Allen's career and his upcoming celebrity wedding but the questions grow more personal as the day goes on. It turns out that they both have more in common than they think and soon, an easy and likable chemistry forms between the two. Their scenes together make up the best stretches in the movie, whose New York street walk-and-talk style feel like Rock's version of a Woody Allen movie. The dialogue, also written by Rock, covers Rock's usual favorite topics of race and relationships but it aims to penetrate deeper into how these characters think and feel.
While I don't doubt Rock's merits as an actor or a writer, he still has room to develop as a director. This film has a start-stop, jerky rhythm to it, which is caused by sporadic flashback sequences that are very hit-or-miss on the whole. Some of those scenes just go on for too long, like a flashback to Houston in 2003 when Allen is recounting a "rock bottom" affair that is neither as comedically appealing or dramatically revealing as Rock thinks it is. Others work quite well, including an unexpected rapper's hilarious rendition of "Smile" while he and Allen are staying the night in jail.
In many ways, Top Five also reminded me of the movie Funny People with Adam Sandler, who is among one of the film's numerous cameos. Both star comedians who started in stand-up comedy, strayed away to advance their careers but yearn to return to the stage once again. There's an excitement to performing stand-up that Rock captures well here in the scene after Allen returns to the Comedy Cellar for the first time in years. Likewise, both films also give way to melodramatic turns and meandering subplots but Top Five has enough to recommend to fans of show biz comedies and especially to fans of Chris Rock.
Jay Reinke in The Overnighters
Documentaries can serve many roles: they can inform, they can influence and yes, they can bore. But some, like genre greats Hoop Dreams and Capturing the Friedmans, take a seed of an idea and pursue it with the dramatic precision of a fictional feature film. The result is an exquisite experience: watching a true story that feels like it's being created before our eyes. That's how I felt while watching The Overnighters, which I found to be one of the most compelling and transfixing documentaries that I've seen all year
The movie's title refers to a program started by Pastor Jay Reinke at his church in Williston, North Dakota, which allows men who are effectively homeless to find shelter as they hope to take advantage of the rampant growth in the area's fracking jobs. While this is clearly an overwhelming act of charity, Reinke's plan soon comes under fire from a community whose recent population spike has also seen an increase in the number of felons and criminals residing in the small North Dakota town. When details of an Overnighter's criminal past come to light, Reinke finds himself in a very public act of moral tug-of-war that threatens to erode his career and his family's trust.
Even if you take the weighty and worthwhile topics of economic inequality and the nature of charity away from The Overnighters, you would still be left with a fascinating and deeply personal character study. Reinke is compelling for the same reason the main character in a fictional drama would be: we root for him and yet we can't be entirely sure of his motivations. He consistently refers to himself as a deeply flawed man when confiding in the men that he shelters, although he generally comes off as a thoughtful, charismatic and generally kind person. "It's easy to become a facade," he states at the film's opening, and we don't fully learn the weight of what he means until the concluding moments of the story.
The entire structure of The Overnighters is similarly purposeful, which can be attributed to the keen eyes and ears of director Jesse Moss. In interviews, Moss has revealed that he originally went to Williston to capture the fracking story and how it affected the community but he shifted his story's focus when learning of Pastor Reinke and his mission. This spontaneous shift in storytelling makes Moss' film even more admirable, especially considering that Reinke's culminating moment in the movie was almost entirely unplanned by the filmmaker.
I also admired Moss' level headed approach to this material. This is a documentary potentially ripe for loads of political posturing but he gives each character room to express their thoughts and feelings freely instead of editing together a series of talking head interviews to hammer home a point. The Overnighters often plays like a parable for the cynical notion that "no good deed goes unpunished" but in Reinke's case, the unravelling of that good deed reveals universal truths about the resiliency of the human spirit.
December 2, 2014 Brent Leuthold
Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in The Babadook
Most modern horror films don't have as much patience or trust in their audience's intelligence as The Babadook does. While most work on a surface level that mainly involve knee-jerk reactions and amped up music cues, there is a select class of films like this one that work on an intimate psychological level of dread and discomfort. For those reasons, among others, it stands out as one of the best horror movies of the past few years and certainly the most unique that I've seen this year.
Essie Davis stars as Amelia, a struggling widow and mother of a troubled seven-year-old named Samuel, played by Noah Wiseman. Through an early flashback, we find that Amelia's husband Oskar, played by Benjamin Winspear, passed away the night of Samuel's birth as he was rushing to drive Amelia to the emergency room. It's made clear that the seven years of single parenthood haven't been easy on either Amelia or Samuel and when a macabre pop-up book titled "Mister Babadook" begins appearing around the house, it unleashes the titular supernatural force that cruelly threatens to rob them of their sanity and their lives.
While the creature is only seen briefly during its moments in the film, its ominous silhouette alone creates a lasting impression and when seen in full, the Babadook reminded me most of a twisted combination of Nosferatu and Jack the Ripper. This archaic aesthetic is fitting, as the lighting and staging in the most climatic scenes feels like a throwback to silent era films. Even the majority of the effects are practical as opposed to computer generated, which lends a more realistic and grounded approach to scenes that may have otherwise come off as cheap or lazy.
Grounded is also a good word to use when describing the storytelling as well, which does involve supernatural elements like ghosts and monsters but is rich with subtext on human issues like the persistence of grief and the hardships of single parenthood. Amelia's feelings of resentment and exhaustion towards Samuel exist long before the Babadook arrives in their home and director Jennifer Kent does a great job at materializing these impulses in a way that feels psychologically convincing and dramatically satisfying. While some scenes may be a bit too on-the-nose when tying the allegorical elements together, it's hard to fault a debut film that's striving to push an entire genre into more narratively complex territory.
It's difficult, too, to understate the importance of Essie Davis' performance to the film's success. She's a marvel to watch, conveying depths of anguish and rage underneath the guise of a mother trying to put on her best face for her child. When moments of brutal honesty do arrive, Davis delivers them with a frightening amount of conviction. She, along with director Jennifer Kent, have created a very special scare-fest that I hope will haunt audiences for years to come.
November 24, 2014 Brent Leuthold
Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
The final entry in the Hunger Games series has arrived and in the tradition of the hugely successful Harry Potter and Twilight films, it has been split into two parts with the final film being released a year from now. While I haven't read the books and can't tell you if Part 1 creates a viable stopping point for the final film, I can say that this standalone portion of Mockingjay feels quite stretched at feature length and I have a hard time believing that this material couldn't be skillfully condensed into one movie. Clearly this was a financial decision on the part of Lionsgate to milk their $1.5 billion (and counting) franchise as long as they can.
Mockingjay picks up right where we left off from Catching Fire, with our heroine Katniss Everdeen, played by Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence, living in the bombed-out District 13 and still reeling from the outcome of the Quarter Quell. Her actions in those Games have sparked uprisings and civil unrest throughout the Districts and the President of 13 Alma Coin, played with conviction by Julianne Moore, hopes to mold Katniss into a symbol of united revolution against the Capitol. She agrees under the condition that her lost love Peeta, played by Josh Hutcherson, be retrieved from the clutches of the Capitol and its corrupt President Snow, reprised with grinning menace by Donald Sutherland.
The film has taken away what I always thought was one of the least interesting things about the previous entries, the Games themselves, but it hasn't replaced them with much exciting material either. Fans of the series will likely be put off by the Katniss-less action in Part 1, in which the main character fires exactly one arrow in combat, although it does produce one of the movie's most satisfying, trailer-ready shots. The majority of the material here is comprised of characters brooding or explaining or plotting, which may prove worthwhile for Part 2 but doesn't leave us with much for now.
All of the characters, Katniss included, feel sidelined and underutilized, often waiting for things to happen as opposed to moving the story along themselves. If that was a conscious decision on the part of director Francis Lawrence, it comes off more as spinning its wheels rather than organically building tension. The acting here is similarly dubious; I never imagined that Josh Hutcherson would give a more convincing performance than Jennifer Lawrence in this film (or any film, really) but it's sadly the case here.
Despite this, Mockingjay is not without its share of inspired moments. There are thankfully some beats of levity in a scene that finds Katniss botching her lines for an overproduced propaganda film that has cheeky notes of political satire embedded. I was most taken with a quietly poetic scene in which soldiers infiltrate the Capitol to retrieve previous Tributes, which frequently reminded me of the Abbottabad raid sequence in Zero Dark Thirty. Here's hoping that the finale has more gripping scenes like this one but for now, it feels like we're stuck with the world's most expensive bookmark.
Kyle Gallner and Tessa Thompson in Dear White People
Taken from the name of its main character's inflammatory radio show, Dear White People is a campus comedy that finds both black and white students coming to terms not only with how others view them but how they view themselves. While the movie and its marketing do have a prickly, sardonic exterior, the core of the film is an intelligent, even-handed look at young people choosing to conform or not conform to others' expectations of them. First time director Justin Simien explores these layers of identity through a myriad of well-thought-out characters that don't just serve as mouthpieces for the film's message.
The lead character Sam, played by Tessa Thompson, is the resident rabble-rouser of the prestigious Winchester University, whose radio show lobs loaded racial one-liners such as "Dear white people: the minimum requirement of black friends needed to not seem racist has just been raised to two." The show proves offensive to both white and black characters, drawing the ire of the school president's son Kurt, played by Kyle Gallner, and the dean of Winchester, played by Dennis Haysbert. With the backing of the campus' Black Student Union, Sam is able to claim control over the all black Armstrong/Parker house from the dean's son Troy, played by Brandon P. Bell.
As an act of rebellion against Sam's reign, Kurt and his humor magazine group Patische choose to celebrate their annual Halloween party by throwing an intentionally offensive "black" themed party, complete with blackface makeup and "thugged-out" apparel (the invitation states that XXL is the smallest permissible t-shirt size.) While this may feel like an overreach on Simien's part, the film's end credits document real life headlines of fraternities caught hosting eerily similar events. The party serves as the film's climax, which has noticeable parallels to Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing.
We're obviously dealing with heavy material here but the level of honesty and humor that Dear White People brings to the conversation of race is refreshing. The acting, by a generally unknown cast, is generally stellar across the board. The screenplay is often witty and relevant, only faltering when going after easy targets like Kanye West and the Big Momma's House series. Even without the race content, the film would work as a Robert Altman (who is name checked by one of the movie's characters) influenced look at modern college life.
Certainly this is an ambitious film, especially for a debut, and Simien does spread himself too thin over multiple story lines that come together through one contrivance or another. I would have enjoyed the scope being narrower overall, focusing more intensely on 3-4 characters as opposed to broadly on 7-8 characters. Although tonally consistent, the film's visual style tries to cover too much ground without ever truly establishing itself in the first place. However, the contemplative musical score does help to fill in those gaps and bring Dear White People together as a worthwhile piece of sharp social satire.
Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Michael Keaton soars above a star-studded cast in Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), the newest film from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. In one of the film's touches of art imitating life, Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a washed up actor of a popular superhero movie franchise attempting to revive his career through the treacherous world of New York theatre. His turbulent production of the Raymond Carver story "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love" makes up the majority of the movie's narrative focus, although there are plenty of pit stops and tangents along the way.
Joining Riggan on stage are his girlfriend Laura, played by Andrea Riseborough, and Broadway newcomer Lesley, played by Naomi Watts. When one of the leads is involved in a tragic rigging accident, he is replaced by cocky method actor Mike Shiner, who is portrayed hilariously with haughty intensity by Edward Norton. Off the stage, Riggan is bolstered by his neglected daughter-turned-assistant, played by Emma Stone, and fearlessly supported by his lawyer and best friend Jake, performed with sputtering conviction by comedian Zach Galifianakis.
Iñárritu is no stranger to this type of stream of consciousness filmmaking but here he is graced by the presence of the visionary cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, whose dazzling camerawork gives the film an unmatched level of liquidity and vibrancy. There's an ethereal quality to this filmmaking, as if the camera is an omniscient being floating around the theater in a search for a greater truth. Many films have been credited as being "dreamlike" but thanks to Lubezki's sublime technique, Birdman actually has the emotional urgency and attentive detail of a waking fantasy.
The lingering feel of the film is captured most prominently by the film's extended takes, which are woven together to give the impression that it has all been filmed in (almost) one unbroken shot. While this gimmick has been attempted most notably in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope, the concept here is used not to show off but rather to give the characters' interactions an additional level of propulsive resonance. It has the dramatic effect of a great bottle episode in a television series, in which characters are confined to one location and often "bounce off" one another as a result. In addition, the free jazz-based musical score also helps provide a demanding rhythm to the storytelling.
While Birdman is technically courageous and consistently well acted, the story arc here is not nearly ambitious as it should have and could have been. Keaton fully commits himself to this role but Riggan's tale is one that ultimately left me feeling a combination of ambivalence and puzzlement. It also doesn't help that the rest of the characters' story lines don't add up to much in the end either. Despite this, the screenplay does pack in enough existential musing and witty wordplay to make it work best as a dark comedy. Iñárritu's inventive flight of fancy is generally a surface affair but when the surface looks this good, it sure is difficult to look away.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb and Dumber To
Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne are back for the first time in twenty years and while this should be grounds for celebration, the result is a movie that can be considered a disappointment regardless of where your expectations are set. Dumb and Dumber To strips away the charm and goofiness its predecessor in favor of broader and more tasteless humor designed for increasingly cheap laughs. Though some of the jokes do land, the majority of the film feels like a desperate cash grab from the Farrelly Brothers, whose best days of comedy are clearly behind them.
For the uninitiated, Lloyd, played by Jim Carrey, and Harry, played by Jeff Daniels, are best friends and idiots who unwittingly find themselves caught up in misadventures that send them across the country. This time around, Harry and Lloyd find an old, misplaced postcard from their mutual flame Fraida Felcher (one of the many callbacks to the original film) that alleges Harry as being the father of her child. When the two meet face to face with Fraida, played by Kathleen Turner, she explains that she gave the child up for adoption years ago, which prompts Harry and Lloyd to set out and find her.
I'll stop there because, let's be honest: the plot is not the focus of this movie, nor was it the focus of Dumb and Dumber either. These films live or die by the punchlines and sight gags but this time around, the humor usually falls flat because the element of surprise and discovery is completely dissipated. As usual, Jim Carrey gives it all that he has here but Jeff Daniels just looks tired and embarrassed through most of Dumb and Dumber To. Even the often reliable Rob Riggle can't manage any laughs as a hopeless chaperone forced to travel along with the two imbeciles.
Clearly there was just a lack of inspiration and creativity that went into this production. It inexplicably took six writers, including the two Farrelly Brothers, to produce a script that just does not give the actors anything to work with. It also paints Harry and Lloyd as more obnoxious and mean-spirited than we've seen them before, whether they're "nerd bashing" at a TED-like conference or blatantly insulting women based on their appearance. There used to be a sweet charisma to these characters that has since been misplaced, which makes it more difficult to find a rooting interest in them.
Despite these criticisms, this film has the joke-a-minute pace of the original and I did laugh at a fair amount of material throughout. While they were mainly laughs that I felt guilty about the next day, I did sporadically enjoy being in the presence of these goofballs once again. One of the funniest scenes involves fireworks shooting off in a car and the subsequent hearing loss that renders Harry and Lloyd oblivious to an oncoming train. Unfortunately, there's not enough here to recommend to newcomers or even the most hardcore of Dumb and Dumber aficionados.
Nicole Kidman in Before I Go To Sleep
Based on the worldwide best-selling novel, Before I Go To Sleep is a serviceable amnesiac thriller that doesn't reinvent the wheel but does enough to make it a worthwhile entry in the genre. Writer/director Rowan Joffé faithfully adapts the novel but while the movie is a brisk hour and a half, it somehow loses the propulsive, page-turning energy that the book maintains throughout. The film routinely sidesteps the slow reveals of the source material in favor of Twists with a capital "T" that can come off as more manipulative than intriguing.
Nicole Kidman plays Christine Lucas, a forty-year-old English housewife who wakes up every morning thinking she is still in her mid-twenties with no memory of her current self. She wakes up next to Ben, played by Colin Firth, who says they have been married for years and that he has been taking care of her since the accident that caused her anterograde amnesia. When Ben leaves for work, Christine gets a call from Dr. Nasch, played by Mark Strong, who says he is a neuropsychologist who has been working with her to restore her memory by maintaining a secret video diary every day.
These entries serve as the narrative backbone of the film, allowing Christine to build a foundation from the blank slate that awaits her every morning and allowing the audience to catch various clues and hints that are presented. When she asks the same question on two separate days and gets different answers, mistrust forms and she knows that she is not being told the full story of her accident and what has happened since. This setup leads to a series of developments that range from tediously melodramatic to genuinely suspenseful, the latter applying most often to the film's final act.
Kidman is very good here, finding creative layers of despair and confusion in a role that could have easily been repetitive and monotonous. Firth and Strong do what they can but they are ultimately pawns in service of the film's twisty plot line. The look and feel of the film is generally chilly and removed, as evidenced by the steely blue color palette that it works from. While the story that it presents is indeed sad, the film does take itself quite seriously and perhaps some humor could have been injected to give things a more human and less sterile feeling.
Seeing this movie after having recently re-read the book, I was glad to see that the movie followed so closely with the original story's revolving plot. Even though I knew the ending going in, I was re-taken into the story and somehow still surprised at points. Still, some deviations still managed to irk me, in particular a poorly-judged scene that involved a character's misreading of a name tag and the triggering of a flashback that felt forced and contrived. Overall, Before I Go To Sleep is an admirable, if not totally memorable, effort.