Word: secret
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...streamlining of the book emphasizes the basically melodramatic quality, when stripped down to the essentials, of James's plot. In turn-of-the-century London, a well-bred but impoverished young woman, Kate Croy (played by the matchless Helena Bonham-Carter), is confronted with conflicting demands of a secret engagement to a penniless journalist (Linus Roache) and a wealthy aunt who wants her to marry well. Into the midst of this crisis sails Milly Theale (Alison Elliott), an ingenuous American visitor who--in true Jamesian form--happens to be encumbered with an enormous fortune. Milly becomes friends with Kate...
Those on the other end of the moral spectrum, the bad guy politicos, are also continually astounded by the efficacy of Murray's secret agent man act. The stock Brit and the stock Russian, working together to revive the Cold War, marvel at his cool aplomb and heartless ability to ignore the impending torture and death that could ensue if things go wrong. The clever folks in the audience can laugh and laugh, knowing it's really ignorance that gives such calm, whereas for Wallace it's the assumption that because he paid for the ticket, his safety in this...
...detailed discussion of Ian's ultimate fate and parentage, of course, would reveal a key secret of the book. But the gentle presence of Ian, in the end, transforms Felix in the Underworld from an enjoyable if hackneyed yarn into something different and superior, a mystery novel with heart...
...hope for any big surprises. The plot is strikingly generic, the "twist" is anticlimactic and predictable and the secret weapon is nothing more than a great...
...especially when it comes to weaponry. His choice of a crude and bulky gatling gun undercuts reports of his slick methods. His use of a crude and bulky New York accent undercuts reports of his cosmopolitan savoir faire. On top of all that, he leaves the blueprints for his secret weapon lying around where the FBI can find them. So what sets this clumsy Jackal apart from other supercriminals? Well, he can (drumroll, please) change his haircolor! But so what? So can Dennis Rodman...