Word: earnest
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...exciting character in the film is not Elizabeth herself but her shadowy advisor Sir Francis Walsingham, played with relish and cold blood by the virtuosic Geoffrey Rush. Other politicos surrounding the Queen, like unrecognizable Christopher Eccleston as the traitorous Duke of Norfolk and Santa Claus-lookalike Richard Attenborough as earnest advisor Sir William Cecil, reveal their allegiances too broadly to become truly fearful or fascinating. By contrast, Rush's lurking performance leaves everything to the imagination: Walsingham whispers sweet Machiavellian nothings in the ear of the Queen between sessions slitting the throats of the boys he buggers...
...difficult because every actor in the production played a preassigned role in a drama with a preordained ending. And because Starr--though he tried to portray himself as an earnest public servant guided only by his reverence for the law--couldn't help veering, sometimes coyly, into political finger wagging. In the middle of his sober presentation there was Starr embracing the three Democratic Senators--Pat Moynihan, Bob Kerrey and Joe Lieberman--who had dared go to the floor in August to say that Clinton's private behavior was a public offense...
...Enterprise Institute, he not only talks the wonk's talk, he also walks the wonk's walk. His admission that he is the co-chair of the President's Advisory Committee on the Obligations of Digital Broadcasters trips off his tongue with alacrity. But like so many of the earnest wonks of Washington, he longs to be loved for more than his mind. He wants to be thought of as funny...
This was probably bound to happen now that the baby-boom generation running Hollywood has begun to turn the corner on 50 (in test screenings, Meet Joe Black is reported to have played particularly well to older men). The earnest side of my brain--the part that thinks Al Gore will make a darn fine President--even feels that these films should be applauded for trying to treat death as something sacred without asking us to watch some Oscar-trolling star die of a brain tumor. But if you're going to treat death as something more than an excuse...
...frosh, after spending several hours reading in an empty common room, was finally taken out by his surrogate host, Avra C. Van Der Zee '02, who had taken pity on him after he left several desperate notes on her door. After spending the night fending off his earnest advances, Van Der Zee came to the conclusion that "pre-frosh that aren't yours are only good for sending back to the dorm to raid their absentee host's alcohol stash...