Word: marcella
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...hurts on the other side too. Marcella (Helen Mirren) is the mother of a small child whose policeman husband was shot in his own farmhouse by the I.R.A. She works in a small lending library and lives on the farms with her husband's parents. Hers is a numb existence as she unwillingly shares the burden of tragedy with her late husband's family...
...husband was killed. A curious blend of infatuation and guilt draws this youth from trembling, zombied isolation in his father's house to vigorous, healthy work. Hiding from the I.R.A. and the police in a hut near the farmhouse, Cal finds solace in the company of the similarly isolated Marcella. The ensuing relationship is the more remarkable for its seeming impossibility; a fragile, temporary salvage from the wreckage of their situations...
When the policeman's widow, a librarian named Marcella (Helen Mirren), is pointed out to Cal, he begins slyly, shyly to stalk her. Whether he seeks love or absolution-or merely to assess the damage done another victim of the act he abetted-he could not say. And the movie is resolute in its refusal to speak for him or, indeed, for anyone caught in the narrative web it constructs out of loosely woven naturalistic fibers. As it demonstrates through its minor figures the stupefaction that permanent conflict imposes on its victims, the film permits Cal to draw closer...
There is too a kind of resignation in the manner with which Cal and Marcella reach out to each other. They seem to understand implicitly the humane gesture's futility in a gray-skied climate where the cold has seeped into everyone's bones. But if these lovers can make contact only briefly and tentatively, the film-a passionate whisper from a darkling plain-takes a firm grasp on one's attention. It is a very fine thing. -By Richard Schickel
...magazines. Unlike weeklies or monthlies, however, the paper bills itself as "a quick read" and thus is not often kept around the house or passed along to other readers. More over, despite Gannett-sponsored research that shows USA Today has an affluent, educated audience, space buyers remain skeptical. Says Marcella Rosen of NW Ayer: "The situation is a little amorphous. There is some question who the readers are." Contends Analyst John Morton: "It has achieved an impressive circulation volume, but I am unconvinced the paper will find an economically rewarding niche...