Word: melodrama
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...Defense (Gene Hackman). It begins as hot reckless sex in the back seat of a limo and climaxes in death and betrayal. No Way Out keeps escalating past passion into mortal power struggles, in which the guilty are forever eliminating the slightly less guilty. But the film rescores, in melodrama's high pitch, the lament of any bright woman with a healthy carnal appetite: Why do men insist that you be either Donna Reed or Donna Rice...
...traditional melodrama the ostensibly weak must triumph over the seemingly invincible. And that usually means a clash between a good woman and an evil man. But this time Dan is the vulnerable one -- in De Palma's provocative term, a "feminized male" -- partly because of his position as head of the family. And his adversary is scarily strong, a masculinized female even in name -- Alex. She is the stalker, the demon, the sexual adventurer...
...cast does fairly well in demanding roles. Prascak's script calls for difficult switches between disparate modes--such as clever word play and campy melodrama--and the actors always maintain their composure. Especially good were Bader and Adam Hyman, who played Raphael, Death's assistant. Although the procession of scenes was somewhat disjointed and hasty, an intervening week of rehearsals has probably smoothed many of the difficulties...
Similarly, Dunaway's Wanda is a genuinely convincing waste case. She also manages the difficult feat of justifying Henry's initial impression of her as "some kind of distressed goddess." She doesn't overdo her star quality, either, avoiding the seductive trap of a 1940s melodrama performance. Even lines like "We're all in hell. And the madhouses are the only places where people know they're in hell" aren't too offensive coming from her--she has a sincerely manic edge to her that justifies her triteness...
What Weeds does with its grabbag of serious and silly, comedy and melodrama is defy convention. This confusion is deliberate and although the movie's attempt to be provocative often borders on the offensive, destroying formulas is a worthwhile endeavor. When the play finally gets to Off-Broadway, the fictional New York Times reviewer says "It's a strange, wild piece." It sure...