Word: realism
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...none of it sticks to the ribs. Some blame goes to the actors (as Dawn, the female cop, Heather Burns has no street cred at all) and to Mark Brokaw's direction, which is too broad. But the fault lies mostly with Lonergan, who betrays his much vaunted realism with contrivance and cheap laughs at every turn. Example: Jeff, the cutely self-aware nincompoop, doesn't want to betray his boss's confidence, so he tells the whole story to Dawn by disguising it, ineptly, as a "hypothetical" case, a ruse she sees through in about five seconds. Pure sitcom...
...unhinging outcome is perhaps too much of a surprise to him and not entirely persuasive to us. That said, The Pledge is still an original and morally alert detective story. Whatever its defects, it reminds us, in our seemingly endless season of gimcrack thrillers, that tense, well-played realism can invigorate our commitment to fictional lives, involve us in the dilemmas of everyday existence as they steal up on people and catch them unaware...
...Clinton simply repeatedly postponed a confrontation by using his waiver. But this week's waiver expires in July, at which point President George W. Bush would have to try his hand at reconciling the Helms-Burton act with Washington's obligations under international free-trade agreements. Republican realism on Cuba There may be a second reason the new Bush administration may be tempted to maintain President Clinton's waiver - the widespread, if relatively muted, recognition among the GOP's foreign policy grownups that the longstanding embargo of Cuba may no longer be serving the U.S. national interest, if that interest...
...even as lawmakers speak publicly of bipartisanship and healing, they speak privately of the deep pessimism that has settled over Washington. One hears it not simply from liberals but also from moderates in both parties who had been bullish about Bush's chance for success. "I'm in the realism category now," says Representative Charles Stenholm, a conservative Texas Democrat who had radiated optimism just days before. "It's going to be difficult...
...with Bill Clinton; CBS's Early Show digitized its logo onto video of Manhattan; and then there was election night. At the Emmys, reality lost out. There's no award for nonscripted shows, and The West Wing's airbrushed depictions of our better angels beat the The Sopranos' gritty realism. Sometimes fantasy still bites...