Word: comical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...between God as reasonable and Reason as god might have been engaging, like the crunch of cold modern science and warm timelessly-fashioned love. And the acting of Peter O'Toole, who worked similar magic in The Stunt Man, should have been able to sustain the tension between the comic and philosophical elements in the character of the tastefully crazed academic...
...Creator is definitely a movie not meant to be. For the first ten minutes, the movie accurately portrays the strange environs of scientific research, and Peter O'Toole is marvelous as a mildly comic, Einstein-like scientist. David Ogden Stiers of MASH fame sounds good without his aristocratic air as O'Toole's ruthless rival. But then the Jeremy Leven screenplay begins its long plummet in quality of dialogue, and the less dazzling supporting cast intrudes...
Running a close second to Streep in talent are rock singers Tracey Ullman and Sting, proving that the movie musical is by no means the only avenue open to today's talented musical celebrities. As Susan's unlikely bohemian sidekick Alice, Ullman provides the film with some strongly needed comic relief. Her entrance on screen is a treasure; waltzing into the office decked out in a man's pinstriped suit, she silences her employer's huffy outburst at her appearance, by remarking "Imagine what my boyfriend's boss is saying right now." Hare balances Alice's bohemianism with Susan...
...other Cosby imitators are easily disposable. In CBS's Charlie & Company, Flip Wilson and Gladys Knight cope with standard TV family dilemmas in substandard comic fashion. And in ABC's Growing Pains, Alan Thicke, the former talk show host, plays a psychiatrist who sets up an office at home while his wife (Joanna Kerns) goes off to work and his children attack him with lines like "You can't hit me, you're a liberal humanist." The only comedy to venture out of the house this season is CBS's hourlong Stir Crazy, based on the phenomenally successful 1980 movie...
...does not work, of course. But Calvino's narrative of this doomed quest succeeds admirably, in part because he, like Samuel Beckett, recognizes the comic possibilities inherent in the tailspin of logic toward the absurd. Mr. Palomar's relentless speculations render him buffoonish. Passing a woman sunbathing topless on a beach, he averts his eyes lest she cover herself and embarrass them both. On reflection, though, he decides that his behavior was incorrect, since it reinforced outmoded taboos against nudity. So he walks by again, this time taking in the bare breasts as an incidental feature in the general landscape...