Word: crooked
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These things we learn in due course: that Vito's sole surviving relative is a small-time crook in Rome; that the dead boy in the cave had been kidnapped by Vito's family and was being held for ransom; that the family's slayers were members of a rival clan (though their precise motives remain obscure). Vito catches glimpses of the dead boy's parents on TV, making anguished pleas for his return. Eventually he feels compelled to make his way to them, and attempts to crawl into their son's bed, into his very life. The moviemakers note...
...everyone lives in fear, of course, but the ones who don't often are consumed with resentment or ridicule for the people who do. The ones that remain are the fear brokers, who by hook or by crook (often by crook) make a buck off everyone else's terror...
...South Africa been plunged into this chaos? Why does the dismantling of Apartheid seem to have caused every crook to crawl out of his hole? The answer probably lies in fact that the abrupt changes in the old regime have weakened many of the institutions which formerly maintained order. The anti-Apartheid movement has challenged the authority of the national government, the army and the police force, whose grip over society has weakened. This, of course, has given the average person more liberty. Unfortunately, though, the lifting of the veil of repression has unleashed more than just the honest...
...Little Leaguer among the big leaguers -- shy, abashed at performing before vast crowds, befuddled by but eager to join in the adult male rituals of his teammates. There's a beamy gentleness about actor Daniel Stern's directorial debut (he also contributes a version of his klutzy Home Alone crook, this time playing an addled pitching coach), and there are finely tuned supporting performances by Amy Morton as Henry's mom and Gary Busey as a fading pitcher who takes the kid under his faltering wing...
...smokes cigarettes like they're going out of style; he also gazes admiringly at pictures of Bogart and emulates the screen idol's swagger. Belmondo perfectly conveys the desperation of this character who looks and thinks like a big-time gangster nut is really just a two-bit crook...