Yesterday Patrick and I spent six hours watching the complete HBO production of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-prize (1993) and double-Tony-winning Angels in America.

So what do I think? The hype is true. The movie is as good as, or even better than, the trailer suggests.

We were allowed a one-hour lunch after the third hour (between “Millenium Approaches” and “Perestroika,” if you know the play), but other than that, it was a whole lot of sitting on our asses. And somehow, I was fine with that. I usually have a hard time with anything over two hours, but as time passes since we left the theater last night, I just want to go watch it again. Six hours! It seemed like two.

Salt Lake City is the only city in the country that received a premier of all six hours, rather than just the first half. At the after-show reception, I talked to a very nice woman from HBO, Director of something something Corporate something, who said the Salt Lake City Film Center had talked them into it because of the Mormon connection, plus in 1995 the Salt Lake Acting Company was one of the first groups in the country to produce Angels because Kushner had perfected the story in 1990 here at the Sundance Theatre Lab.

As you probably know, the play is excellent, the writing layered yet accessible, the characters complicated and interesting. Mike Nichols‘ direction more than does the story justice, and the cinematography throughout New York City still lingers in my mind. The opening credits alone made my eyes glaze over in awe.

And yet it was the acting that really sticks with me today. I can’t think about anything else. I knew Al Pacino, Emma Thompson, and especially Meryl Streep were all going to be dynamite, as usual, but the entire ensemble cast was stunning. Those three acting veterans gave performances among the best in their careers, and Mary-Louise Parker, Patrick Wilson, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, and Jeffrey Wright were definitely as good as the vets—and that’s saying a lot.

My words will never do it justice, so I’m just going to say, at the risk of sounding like a corporate whore shilling for HBO:

Whatever you’re doing on the evening of Sunday, December 7, watch the first part of Angels in America.