Word: crafted
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...thank heaven, a particularly magnificent one. Travolta and writer-director Steve Zaillian, compressing complex issues and characters with admirable craft, make it clear that greed and ego, more than compassion, drive Schlichtmann. Only when he reaches straits as dire as his clients' does he (non-melodramatically) achieve something like full humanity. Meantime, we've enjoyed a richly acted--see especially Robert Duvall's dreamy-fox opposition lawyer--subtly suspenseful, blessedly unmoralizing morality play...
Although the Pacific winds are a crucial boost, they are also what makes this the most dangerous leg of the journey: Right now the balloonists are headed straight for a weather pattern that could spell serious trouble for the helium-and-hot-air craft, just as it did for team member Steve Fossett, who fell thousands of feet and was nearly killed by a storm in the South Pacific during his last ballooning attempt. Shipping traffic gets pretty sparse in the vast reaches of the Pacific, and no one wants to find out how long it would take...
...Global balloon team may face yet another earthbound political threat: The winds are taking their craft straight toward the world's most closed and paranoid nation, North Korea. If they're fortunate, an atmospheric depression will steer them over South Korea instead. And from there, it's on to America, which the team hopes to reach by Christmas. From his perch 31,000 feet above the earth, Branson is no doubt wishing for the holiday to be a windy...
Hanks' hectoring is always about craft and competence: doing it right, getting the job done. Nearly every Hanks director describes him as a maddening perfectionist who is somehow so sincere that he doesn't piss anybody off. More important, he gives directors his fierce dedication to submerging himself in the role. "He's so versatile and has such range," says Frank Darabont, writer-director of Hanks' next film, The Green Mile, "that you don't have to take the character to him. He brings the character to the screen." Hanks also knows how to lighten things...
...veteran balloonists had obtained permission to overfly southern China, but had to change course to avoid Iraq (for obvious reasons) and a storm over the weekend; they are now over the Himalayas, with no landing options in sight, and striving to to steer their craft southward. Meanwhile, their liaison on the ground -- along with the British government and former prime minister Edward Heath -- continues to make appeals to the Chinese. It's par for a rough course: Over the weekend, Libya gave the flight a last-minute reprieve after suddenly withdrawing permission. The hot-air balloon took off from Marrakech...