Word: plot
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Although critics often view the movie as simply an allegory for Communism’s failures, Wang considers the work introspective and meditative rather than political or judgmental. He objects to reviewers who take the film’s plot too literally, thinking that the soldier serves only to represent Communism as false hope. “I think this film is poised to be post-ideological,” he says. “It is really a profound reflection about the long stretch of Chinese civilization...
...directly targeted at a clear audience. The first few books straddled the boundary between young adult and mainstream fiction, and as the protagonist and authorial risks have matured, McCafferty has positioned herself between “chick-lit” and more literary-minded fiction. On appearances and plot summary alone, “Perfect Fifths” seems to fall squarely within the realm of the former, but there is a psychological depth to the light, funny diction that would ordinarily make a novel targeted at young women a “quick read.”Plotwise...
Director Kevin Macdonald’s “State of Play” is an above-average political thriller that features solid but unspectacular performances and an engaging plot that manages to hold our attention for two hours. It is better than mediocre but far from brilliant—and for this we may be thankful. After what feels like an endless procession of movies aimed at either a small critical circle or a mass market, “State of Play” accomplishes what few recent films have been able to do: balance the commercial appeal...
...real life danger” on the screen. In fact, while Thurber keeps the mob at a considerable distance (we don’t know, for example, why Cleveland is involved), he relies on its existence to compensate for the poorly developed elements of the flaccid plot. If Art is vapid, it is because he lives in the shadow of a gangster; a scene with a pistol juxtaposes cheerful bonding in the hope that cliché plus cliché might make some real life. Acting does not add complexity to the situation. Granted, the actors are not given much...
...Ayers clear: “I met a man who was down on his luck and I thought I could help him.” But this motive bears little in the way of transformation or even explanation. The 1996 movie “Shine,” whose plot is almost identical to that of “The Soloist,” traced the struggles and recovery of pianist David Helfgott to a provocative and satisfying resolution. Unlike that movie, however, “The Soloist” never answers the question it first posited: can music...