Word: deftly
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...poem also remains a testament to Gardner's virtuoso technique, his deft control of the cumbersome epic. Take, for example, his handling of the narrative point of view, his own relationship as writer to his story. The first person narrator is cast into an epic-dream, brought to Corinth by the gods to record for posterity the sad details of Jason's split from Medeia. While this anonymous poet is only a neutral observer, he tries desperately to alter the course of events by reconciling the couple. Only Medeia can see him, and she thinks he's a devil. Gardner...
Hoffmann works as an opera because its music is inventive and full of deft characterizing touches. There is no reason the storied fancies of E.T.A. Hoffmann cannot work as ballet too-as long since proved by Coppelia and The Nutcracker. This Hoffmann has a recomposed score by John Lanchbery that draws also on other colorful Offenbach works. But its choreographic steps and gestures are trite, even humdrum at points, and devoid of the kind of grand line that grand ballet at its best demands. (Ah, those outstretched arms signaling the courtesan's entrance-as in a silent film starring...
...Director Sarafian and a rather fetching performance by Sarah Miles, less mannered than her recent appearance in The Hireling (TIME, July 9). Burt Reynolds is best of all. His is a silly, thankless part, but he plays it smoothly, with a strong undercurrent of ironic humor. He is a deft and winning actor, and it would be good to see him again in something like Deliverance, in a part that challenged his abilities rather than pampered them...
...formula is certainly familiar, but the reaction, in this case, has unexpected impact. The husband is George Segal, by far the most deft American actor of light comedy, as he proved recently in Paul Mazursky's Blume in Love (TIME, June 25); the divorcée is Glenda Jackson, whose virtuosity and energy dazzle. Together they make an elegant pair of amorous antagonists, their smooth skills bringing great fun and fresh surprise to the sort of material that can always use a good professional refurbishing...
...Angeles with tart asides on stylish psychiatrists discussing the notion of "sport screwing," teen-age swingers, and hip health-food restaurants where satanic waiters recite the menu like an incantation. Yet he can be tender, too, and his characters are never merely clowns or pawns of plot. With a deft and cunning irony, he can point out the essential selfishness of Blume's anguish without ever playing down to it. Occasionally, though, Mazursky loses perspective, and his characters become unintentionally funny. This happens when Nina addresses her unborn child...