Word: lad
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...Larch says this to Homer Wells, a young man born at the orphanage whose various sojourns with foster families have all ended in failure. Since Homer seems destined to stay in St. Cloud's, Larch urges him to "be of use," and the lad complies. He begins by taking over the nightly readings to the younger children; those in the boys' wing hear David Copperfield or Great Expectations, and the girls get Jane Eyre. The idea of featuring great novels about orphans is Dr. Larch's: "What in hell else would you read to an orphan?" Homer's duties gradually...
...foggy lowlands, wearing their bright costumes, they made a visual feast. Now and again you would catch sight of a peach-clad boy on an Appaloosa cutting through the Chinese tallow trees, or a scarlet lad standing on his saddle, dancing on a bay. Five young women gotten up as golden harlots were included in the tableau as an easy taunting symbol for the youths: do not touch, even if you are not yourself...
Castleton is indeed unsettled by the shrieking, weeping and effusively loving behavior of this weird child. "Shut up, darling," he pleads during one attempt to comfort the little lad, who is, Castleton decides, "Pure Gold and all that, but inconceivably maddening." Worse, the new husband begins to take the true measure of his wife, who not only treats her servants as if feudalism still reigned and slavery had never been abolished but who hectors her semi-invalid son unmercifully: "Drink your porto and try and get a little color in your face for a change." She will make...
...rueful portrait of the British spy--Guy Burgess, retired to Moscow--as a displaced person, isolated from his best friends and instincts. Chris Boyce (Timothy Hutton) feels isolated too, trapped in America; but here Schlesinger dares not flirt with political or visual subtlety. Everyone is an oaf but our lad. Mom (Joyce Van Patten) is dithery, and Dad (Pat Hingle) scares the falcon, and Chris' girlfriend (Lori Singer) is one big vacant California erogenous zone. His treason is pinned on mid-America, not so much for the evil of its ways as for the banality of its style. Affluence...
...talking about an ordinary adolescent escape route here, something like the stamp collection or the drum set preordained for the parental attic. We are talking about a lad who would, if he could, become a bird. We are talking about an adolescent making a bird suit pasted together feather by feather and then launching himself off roofs and cliffs in an attempt to fly. And we are talking about a madness that is innocent, joyous and, finally, perhaps unconquerable and exemplary. Especially as it is presented by Matthew Modine in a brave performance--just over the top but under control...