Word: plot
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...statistics promise that kidnapped children are a hundred times more likely to be taken by friends, loved ones, parents, than by strangers. And yet, as the search for Michael and Alex Smith continued, it required too complex a calculation to suspend pity and suspect a plot. Even when wormy doubts poked through -- Could this possibly all be a hoax? -- millions watched Susan Smith's sorrowful pleas and put suspicions aside...
...coincidence that Hilde and Sophie have the same birthday? Suffice it to say that the answers involve a talking dog and a magic mirror, as well as the relation of illusion to reality, free will vs. predetermination and -- shades of Pirandello -- fictional characters seeking to escape their author's plot...
Still, Sophie's World may not be for everyone. The characters are half- dimensional, the plot creaks, and Gaarder's prose (or the translation by Paulette Moller) has a distinct flavor of bark. As fiction, Sophie's World deserves no better than a D+. But as a precis of great thought, Gaarder's tour de force rates a solid...
...unnecessary sophistication to a role that requires her to do little more than kiss in midsentence and appear alternately tortured and feisty. In fact, many cast members -- including Sir John Gielgud (Scarlett's grandfather) and Julie Harris (Rhett's mother) -- seem wasted on a story without much of a plot and a script devoid of sharp dialogue. Dalton is a sufficiently handsome Rhett, although he lacks the intelligence and wit of Gone With the Wind's Clark Gable. What's more, Dalton is not given resonant lines like the movie's "All we've got is cotton and slaves...
...original inspiration for all these celluloid Frankensteins is James Whale's 1931 film which in fact takes only minimal plot elements from Mary Shelley's novel. Karloff's monster stands out in a production which is in many ways simply a Hollywood fluff treatment of the story. This time around, the handsome Dr. Frankenstein animates a monster who terrorizes the countryside, and Frankenstein's lovely fiancee, until he is hunted down and dies in a bizarre finale sequence at a windmill...