Word: scenes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...children, but wasted are her sharp, delicate eyes and wonderfully expressive mouth. In fact, the occasional, accidental spurts of beautiful acting she is allowed only serve to frustrate the viewer even more as she struggles to do what she can with her underdeveloped role. In one scene, we see the hard set of her firm chin break for a moment, and this barely perceptible tremor is basically the only memorable aspect of her entire performance...
...closing scene is so treacly and trite that it verges on being offensive. The young Frank McCourt, a fresh-faced Irishman with high hopes for the future, is looking out from a boat onto the Statue of Liberty--his first look at the beloved United States for which he's yearned for so long. As the score swells and Frank beams with delight, there's a moment of suspense before you realize that a chorus of ragged Irish immigrants isn't actually going to line up behind him and start singing "America, the Beautiful." This scene...
...opening scene is an antebellum wedding for the wealthy, giving the film a Gone With The Wind air. Commenting that weddings are just another "peculiar institution," two boys on the verge of manhood, Jake "Dutchie" Roedel (Tobey Maguire) and Jack Bull Chiles (Skeet Ulrich) suddenly decide they must become active participants in the preservation of the Southern way of life. Yet this brief conversation fails to justify the movie's dramatic tension. For Roedel and Chiles, risking life and limb is simply one more game. The charade is pervasive, as Ulrich looks entirely out of place in his Civil...
...Each scene becomes more and more reflective of a cinematic game, as the men fight from summer to fall with individual deaths meaning little. Lee's fade-outs to nature are beautiful portraits of the rich Missouri countryside, yet he is almost too proud of his ability to capture these scenes on film. While he tries to establish a distinction between active battle and quiet days at camp, each fade-out is one more step away from the film's chance to redeem itself with a coherent story line. Hints of Lee's genius as a director do show...
...away the winter. Jewel is surprisingly good at engaging in dialogue, yet she visibly shies away from the camera when she finishes her lines. Lee quickly establishes a romantic relationship between Shelley and Chiles, who sires a child before dying in a federal raid on the dugout. Chiles death scene is sickeningly melodramatic as Roedel and Holt first attempt to amputate Chiles' diseased arm, only to realize that Chiles' death is inevitable. Jewel attempts to be a grieving lover, yet the camera does not stop wandering over her buxom chest...