Word: plot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...slaughters in the tenement backyard. Wilson's style is down-to-earth realism, but his plays often have a mystical element or character, and almost as often that is where they go wrong. That's the case here. The misanthropic and mysterious Hedley becomes increasingly important to the plot and increasingly difficult to understand, undercutting the narrative drive and distracting the audience's attention from Floyd. At the same time, Floyd's money problems begin to involve several unseen characters. Instead of accelerating its pace and distilling its themes in its second half, Seven Guitars slows down and muddies...
...probably. But wordplay soon swamps a vigorous plot. Much traditional writing is, you might say, in this book linguistically taboo, a vast anomaly calling for a radical, slightly wacky approach to put things right. To wit, this famous soliloquy that a world-class playwright wrought for a moody Scandinavian scion: "Living or not living: that is what I ask." Or an alcoholic bard's notoriously rhythmical night thoughts: "'Twas upon a midnight tristful I sat poring, wan and wistful/ Through many a quaint and curious list full of my consorts slain." A mournful coda follows: "Quoth that Black Bird...
...suspects that Boyd complicates the plot for the pleasure of disentangling it in lean, lively prose. He also offers fascinating insights into pre-modern medicine and the mad dreams of the earliest aviators-presented not as set pieces but woven into the narrative. In all, typical Boyd-satisfying and baffling at once...
Sexual harassment is a good subject for legal briefs, psychological studies and outraged essays. It is not a natural topic for popular entertainments. Typically (to put it mildly), the protagonist lacks heroic stature, and it is hard to spin a plot of page-turning intricacy from such a crude offense...
...Queen Margot" frequently takes one's breath away, but, more often than not, it is as a result of trying to keep up with the tortured plot, poorly structured narrative and overcooked performances. Intermittent breathlessness is not enough of a reason to go see a film, you can run around the block and save...