Word: staticity
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...ashes and what they signify would be pointless in this weak cinematic adaptation of the book. What works for the book--different incidents from McCourt's childhood that connect to create a rich, moving mosaic of his life growing up in Ireland--fails miserably on-screen. Episodic and unsatisfyingly static, the film is bound to disappoint fans of McCourt's memoir...
...given. Unfortunately, they seemed to exacerbate the situation. Joe Nuccio '01 as Mike yells and jumps around so much that even potentially funny speeches become annoying. His chauvinist roommate Dick (Josh Glassman '02), who is written as suddenly developing feelings near the end of the play, comes across as static as Mike is irritatng. In general, Glassman seems to have a poor grasp of his character. Dick seems more like a modern Middlebury student wearing tie-die over his J. Crew than the hippie he was written as. The women--Ruth (Shapiro) and Cathy (Shani)--are mopey and whiney respectively...
...music fade into a sharply lit, sanitary office. The dialogue is reminiscent of a machine, and the office becomes a highly functional organism. The Filing Clerk (Randy Gomes '02) and the Adding Clerk (Eddie Montoya '02) do a fabulous job of doubling dialogue and repeating each other with static variations. Coupled with the aimless chatter of the Stenographer (Kate Agresta '02) and the Telephone Girl (Thandi Parris '01), an environment of alienation is complete. Everything about this world is artificial, including the commotion when Helen (Erica Rabbit '00) enters the room. The boss has a strange affinity...
...just that they have a long history of mutual, top-of-the-lungs contempt to get past. It's that writer-director Joel Schumacher refuses to stick to what might have been his best point, which is how the singing lessons actually work. That's apparently too static for him, and we see very little of the pair working together. Instead, he focuses on the boringly brutal criminals who keep looking for their lost loot, on the cute vagaries of drag-queen life, on Koontz's messed-up romantic and buddy relationships. All this points to the preordained ending...
...believe that culture is static," he said. "It changes all the time...