Word: almost
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...worry. See, the dancers can really only last 10-15 minutes at a time because the intensity and energy required for a particular number is excruciating. So the rest of the time is filler--often thuddingly, anachronistic, cliched, diluted filler. At one point, a blues singer launches into almost a mini-opera about liberation from bondage (I confused it for a Civil War hymn at first)--it entirely changes the show's tone. Seconds later, of course, the bouncing Irish return to claim their stage. But the most egregious offense comes a few acts later. A group of African-American...
...Pace is the film's largest failing; though a deliberate pace helped the first half succeed very admirably, it fails when the tensions are rising by not building to a climax. Mann's film slackens and almost sputters...
...when the film, inexplicably, changes its focus from Wigand to Bergman. Just as Wigand is entering his darkest period, becoming psychologically unhinged, the film cuts away to Bergman and his struggles with the brass at CBS. The heroic, moral air that builds up around Bergman in the last third almost suffocates the intricate and brilliant tale before it and threatens to turn the film into a full-blown, us-vs.-them morality tale...
...greatest strength of the film is in its actors but in the last part of the film, Crowe's Wigand almost disappears, and Pacino's Bergman is given scenes full of moral posturing that are completely out of character. After weaving a difficult and astonishing narrative, Mann begins to lose the thread; he sacrifices complexity for black-and-white morality and substitutes shapeless confrontations for emotional depth...
...true. Although the film should garner nominations for Actor, Supporting Actor and Screenplay come Oscar time, I can't help but feel a little disappointed that Michael Mann's well-crafted film could have been a true contender, and instead came up short as an epic-that-almost...