Word: slapstick
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...moviegoers in the U.S., France and Japan who have made a hit out of this 1980 comedy by South African Writer-Director-Producer-Actor -Cinematographer-Editor Jamie Uys. The film's pleasures are simple and obvious: an original plot, lots of slapstick and a lead performance by the Bushman N!xau, who registers every absurdity with the aplomb of an aboriginal Buster Keaton. There is a tinge of paternalism in Uys' attitude toward both the Bushman and the bumbling rebels, but he seems no racist; he tars all his characters, black and white, with the same broad satirical brush. With...
...traditional Shakespearean actress, which makes her the wrong person for his role. Her mugging, posting and self-consciously exaggerated delivery make no sense; her gestures and poses look like they have been forced on her against her will. Too often Giroux's voice lapses into sincerity while her slapstick gestures scream of parody. Her transformation from ferocious to frail falls flat...
...slapstick comedy, coming as it does in the midst of an attempt at sexual suspense, deals the death blows to an already faltering film. When all is done, the only thing that Thief of Hearts steals perfectly is two hours of your time...
Perhaps it is the fault of director Jeffrey Zaks or perhaps it is the weakness of the script itself, but the play's shift from slapstick None of the characters are developed enough to make their suffering believable and the play's broad beginning leaves the audience unprepared for any profound message hold coda might hold. Despite all the hoopla, Sister Mary's bark is a lot worse than her bite...
...line three times as well. The spirit of Woody Allen is sometimes summoned forth: "That which is crooked cannot be made straight, although with that one I believe there are psychotherapists who might disagree." When all else fails, a common enough occurrence in this narrative, Heller turns to the slapstick of Mel Brooks circa the comedy routine "The 2,000-Year-Old Man" and the film The History of the World-Part I: pointless anachronisms (" 'Send a wire!' I shouted. 'We have no wires,' Jehoshaphat recalled for me") and noises in descending orders of rudeness...