Rubbing Shoulders With the Stars

"Hey Keri, what are you doing this Wednesday?" my good friend Elise asked me.
Art from the Heart meeting, yoga, meet Kathy at the church to give her tablecloths (forget your key and meet her twice), watch two extra kids in the afternoon, kids have a half day from school, go for a hike with all the kids, make a snack for cub scouts, drop Jacob and friends off for cub scouts, take dinner to a family, Rus has boy scouts, Bekah has Girl's Activity day...
Now, at the time, I didn't know that my Wednesday would be like that. But even if I had, I would have still emphatically, jubilantly said, "I'm IN," when Elise presented me with a wonderful invitation:
"Some friends gave me four tickets to go see the premier of the movie 50 to 1 downtown at the Kimo theater on Wednesday night. Do you think you can come?"
Honestly, my first thought was, "50 to 1? I have no idea what movie that is." But then Elise filled me in: the movie tells the true story of the how the horse Mine That Bird came to be purchased by a super wealthy New Mexico rancher, trained by a down-on-his-luck trainer, and against incredible odds, won the Kentucky Derby in 2009. (Sorry, I just told you how the movie ends.) Because it was filmed mostly in New Mexico, they were holding the official world premier (complete with red carpet), here in Albuquerque. Yay!
I told her I would make it work, that I was in, and then I went home and googled the movie so I could watch the preview. It turns out I knew who a few of the stars were from watching Jericho (Skeet Ulrich), and Leverage (Christian Kane). I found a sitter, a ride for Bekah to her activity, and then sat around to worry about the real problem: What in the world was I going to wear?
Well, in true fashion, I toyed with different clothing options up until the very last minute and then finally at 3:45pm on Wednesday I made my way to target and madly purchased every piece of clothing that I thought might be that elusive "red carpet" material. At 4:20pm as I was leaving Target, Elise called and said that we actually needed to leave at five that night, not 5:30, and I swallowed my panic and tried not to think about my frizzy crazy hair, make-up-less face, and bag of clothing options that I wasn't quite sure how to coordinate.
I know. You're thinking I'm goofy. Perhaps a little too caught up in the details of what was essentially a movie night. But for a Mormon, mom of four, married to a redneck who loves to have "fix-the-VW-bug-Dates," being able to attend a movie premier with a bunch of girlfriends where celebrities would be present was equivalent to Cinderella attending the Ball.
Anyhow, even without a fairy godmother, I was primped and dressed by five and I breezed out the door blowing kisses to my children (whom I had actually made dinner for before I left, mind you), and then sped like crazy to meet up with my girlfriends. We got downtown in plenty of time and I think each of us finally breathed easy when we had made it downtown, found a parking spot, and found ourselves on the barricaded street in front of the Kimo. Mine That Bird was there in a little fenced-in area so everyone could ooh and ahh at him and feed him peppermint candies. The men in the crowd were mostly in blue jeans, boots, sports jackets and cowboy hats, and the women were wearing everything from jeans, boots and button up shirts to tight fitting dresses and big floppy hats.
Here I am with my friends, (from the left), Elise, Brittney, and Christy.

And here we are on the red carpet! A lady standing next to us was from L.A. and she said this is "New Mexico red carpet", dusty and dirty...but it worked for me!

After standing outside for quite a while, waiting in line for our wristbands and enjoying watching different people in the crowd, the 50 to 1 bus pulled up and out came the movie stars. The first one we were able to take a picture with was Christian Kane. We learned from others in the crowd that this guy has quite a following of crazed women who call themselves, "Kane-iacs." Now while it was fun to take a picture with him, and to watch him in the movie (I thought he did a great job), I find the metro style and long hair to be a turn off...but that's just me. And check it out - I know we were all in heels, but he's kind of short!

After the movie, we were able to take a picture with Skeet Ulrich and Chip Wooley - the character he played in the movie. We walked up when Skeet was talking to Chip, saying, "I'm so glad you liked the movie, Chip, really, that just means so much to me, I'm so glad!" (Chip is on the right in a dark shadow, whoops). It turns out that this was the first time Chip had seen the movie. The movie about himself. Played by someone else. How surreal would that be?

And I know our eyes are super red in this picture - seriously let me whine for a moment about how inept random strangers are when you had them a phone and ask them to take a picture. It's like you've given them the remote to a missile launcher and they have no idea how to handle it. Weird. Anyway, the chick in the middle is Maddelyn Deutch and she plays the gal that helps Chip Wooley train Mine That Bird. She was terrific in the movie, really fun and easy to talk with afterward, AND it turns out she's the daughter of Lea Thompson (Lorraine, Back to the Future)

So yes, Maddelyn's mommy Lea was there and we got a picture with her too! Isn't she beautiful? She's like 52 now.

So the jockey that actually raced Mine That Bird in the Kentucky Derby played himself in the movie. I can't remember his name...but he was obvious jockey-material - short, slight. It was hard to understand him talk, I'm not sure why...and he really wanted to get his alcoholic beverage after the show, but we tracked him down and got this picture of him while he was in line. I love that my friend told him he was "inspirational." He was...but all four of us gals will readily admit that we were especially cheesy fans that night. I'm not sure if we'll be allowed around celebrities again.

And here is the last pic we took, in front of the official 50 to 1 bus. The movie was an independent film and they are going on tour to promote the movie. I really wanted to ask the bus driver for a peek inside, but I restrained myself...

Now if you've been waiting for a review of the actual movie, here is my take:

It was a good story line, with all the typical drama and comedy that inspirational movies have. I had three issues with it: You could tell it was low budget. That being said, they really did an awesome job, as Elise pointed out, of seamlessly meshing the footage of the actual 2009 derby and their own shots. Also, it was kind of slow paced.Sometimes Skeet Ulrich's slow drawl was a little tedious and overplayed. And finally, for being a movie about a horse and a trainer, it didn't have a lot of scenes of the trainer actually training the horse. It had two, and I would have liked to see a lot more to believe the connection between the horse and the trainer. 

But I saw the premier! With the stars of the show! And just for that I'm going to buy it and love it. :) Thank you Elise, Brittney and Christy for an unforgettable girls night out!!