Word: actorly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Where to start? Here's the short version: Deconstructing Harry, the new movie from writer-director-actor Woody Allen is a) very funny, b) very unfunny, c) very personal, d) strangely detached, e) dense as hell and f) strangely unsatisfying. Here's the long version...
Holm responds to this challenge with a solid, subtle performance. His challenge is to portray grief without obvious emotional excess. Holm, the actor best known for his supporting role in Chariots of Fire, seems resigned and defeated. His gravelly voice shows that he is a man defeated by life, merely performing his job out of custom. He only rises from his dejection when forced to show anger, the only emotion that he has left...
...other character prepared to take extreme measures is the only child to survive the crash, Nicole Burnett. She is Stevens' equal, both in character intensity and strength as an actor. As the sullen survivor Nicole, Sarah Polley gives a mesmerizing performance, confined to a wheelchair and unwilling to participate in Stevens' act of retribution. Her story is echoed in Robert Browning's poem, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," which she tells in flashback to the children she baby-sits. Browning's poem provides a recurring metaphor for the film--one not limited to the simple comparison between the children...
...Postman, Costner's latest overblown, over-long epic adventure. In answer to your immediate questions: no, it's not a great film; yes, the premise is hokey; yes, it's too long; and yes, it's a blatant display of self-aggrandizement and megalomania on the part of actor-director-producer Costner. But is it as bad as everyone thought it would be? As was true of Waterworld...
Speaking realistically, though, the leap from familiar suburban mailcarrier to action hero is a lot to ask of the moviegoing public. And Costner is not the actor to ask it. His Postman is supposed to be a traveling actor (the first of many ironies) who uses his charm and chutzpah to snowball the entire American West into believing that a new government has been created (in Minneapolis, of all places) and that postal routes are being reestablished all over the country. Costner, however, is so devoid of charisma and conviction that you wonder why anyone would believe...