Word: gracefulness
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Luke's version of the Annunciation is very different. It is the one we are more familiar with, in which the angel Gabriel greets Mary with the lines Catholics have often recited as "Hail, Mary, full of grace." It continues with a much more complete description of what came to be known as the virginal conception, and goes on through Mary's acceptance: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word...
...centuries, Christians expended vast interpretive energies on that last phrase. Long-standing arguments between Catholics and Protestants revolved around whether Mary inherently possessed the grace enabling her to accept the divine will (making her more worthy of Catholic-style reverence) or was granted it on an as-needed basis. These days, however, some feminist readers like Vanderbilt University's Amy-Jill Levine, editor of the forthcoming Feminist Companion to Mariology, are more interested in what might be called Mary's feistiness. After all, Levine points out, the handmaid line does not follow immediately upon the angel's tidings that "thou...
...football in the backfield. Pop Warner, football's Little League, has 20,000 coaches. At most, 200, or 1%, are women. And only one high school in America--George Washington in New York City--has a female head football coach. This isn't shocking, given that few girls actually grace the gridiron. Still, the National Football League (NFL) is eager to address the shortage, starting with moms like Bolds-Jackson in New Orleans...
DiCaprio is ever plausible and watchable; he carries this big picture with grace. As for Scorsese, he seems to have taken a cue from the DiCaprio façade, fashioning a portrait of smooth surfaces and trusting DiCaprio to show what's inside. Well, an actor can reveal meaning, but he shouldn't be asked to invent it. Despite its star's heroic efforts, The Aviator is a gorgeous jet, flying on automatic pilot. --By Richard Corliss
...saving grace of this movie is its cinematography, which is nearly impeccable. The characteristic use of strong color and natural imagery that distinguished Yimou in this summer’s Hero returns in full force with Flying Daggers, bestowing the film with a mythic ethos that mostly excuses its often pedantic moralizing...