Word: maudlinity
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Returning to the land and living off it is a stubborn American dream. It persists even though small farmers are leaving in droves. Without being maudlin about it, Perrin laments their passing and the dis appearance of a way of life that knit hard ships and satisfactions together. He never pretends that part-time farming is the same as the real thing. But by clearing fields and keeping boundaries intact, he at least stages a holding action against total loss. And telling others how he has done it preserves that hold...
...Streisand's overripe features mugging and straining as young Fanny auditions for her first show. Hilarious The other is of a successful and (with the help of posture lessons) statuesque Fanny, breaking down in tears during a concert because her marriage with her first husband (Omar Sharif) is kaput. Maudlin. The first image urges me to recommend it, the second signals me to say, avoid it like the plague. So go, invite a friend, and cuddle during the second half...
...collided, resulting in sprawling calamities that were often exhaustingly funny. George Segal's wild-eyed sexual/homicidal obsessions (frustrated at every turn by his incessantly doddering mother, Ruth Gordon) produced scenes of comic genius, and in a lesser film, like The Comic, such moments successfully diverted attention from Reiner's maudlin tendencies in his quieter scenes. But in Oh God! the maudlin preponderates; Reiner chooses, for reasons of his own, to be "laid back," ignoring his real comic strengths...
...opening, hide-hardening experience or whether this is simply an immature attempt to appear worldly and sophisticated is questionable. One suspects it's a little of both. In any case, First Love, directed by Joan Darling--the person who brought us Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman--is probably too maudlin and sentimental to touch the hearts of many Harvard students. Most will guffaw rather than cry. The most blase will leave laughing at the film's triteness and superficiality, confident that they will never fall victim to the treacherous pitfalls of first-time romance...
...would be nice to excuse this film's clumsiness as well-intentioned amateurism, but Brooks' intentions are as deplorable as his technique. With the exception of Conn's honestly maudlin performance, every element of You Light Up My Life is cynically conceived; the film's inspirational message and big emotional moments owe more to recent hit movies than they do to any human reality. If Brooks has any genuine passion, it's apparent only when he shamelessly stops his film dead to plug the five ballads he has composed for the sound track. The sentiments...