Word: owlish
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Brooks Brothers Shirt (adapted and directed by Frederic Raphael), a radical journalist (Elizabeth McGovern) meets a crass business executive (Beau Bridges) who makes use of his booze and her boredom to lure her into a one- night stand during a transcontinental railroad trip. (Those were the days!) Owlish and pudgy, Bridges is right for his role, but pillow-soft McGovern is wrong for hers. And many of Raphael's arch lines -- "Stand by for a Fascist invasion," the reporter murmurs to herself just before sex -- sound like candidates for the New Yorker's old "Sayings We Doubt Ever Got Said...
...equally hard to understand Ford's owlish performance as Sabich. He is supposed to be a smart, aggressive lawyer, tops at his trade. But Ford is mostly dull and inward looking, at best cranky where he should be vigorous and resourceful. There are some excellent things in Presumed Innocent: Scacchi's erotic heat as she lures Sabich into adultery; Paul Winfield's sardonic knowingness as he presides over Sabich's trial; Brian Dennehy's deadly impassivity as he betrays a friend to protect his career. Each anatomizes a subspecies of the political animal with finely observed accuracy. Each gives...