Word: ullman
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...come up with? Nothing strikingly different, though a few shows depart slightly from the network cookie cutter. Married . . . with Children, one of the first Fox offerings, has the trappings of a typical sitcom but turns out to be a wicked assault on wholesome family shows. Another entry, The Tracey Ullman Show, stars the bouncy British singer-actress in half an hour of sketches, songs and variety acts, a mix that does not fit into current network pigeonholes...
...Kinnear, a Chicago software engineer, became increasingly angry with each of four trips to his car dealer to get the cruise control repaired on his 1985 Buick Century. Finally, he gave up when the mechanics made it clear that they no longer wanted to deal with his problem. Jane Ullman, a Santa Monica, Calif., sculptor, thought her refrigerator problems were over when deliverymen installed a new deluxe model in her kitchen. But her woes were just beginning; the workmen broke the refrigerator's copper pipes, which took several visits from repairmen to fix. "People have learned to take shoddy service...
Even when Susan is not quite explicable or sympathetic, she is a compelling spectacle, turning heads and stomachs with her coruscating monologues. The others--her husband (Charles Dance), her bohemian pal (Tracey Ullman), her befuddled lover (Sting) and two of her husband's superiors in the diplomatic corps (John Gielgud and Ian McKellen)--have delicious verbal turns of their own. Among its other virtues, Plenty is the year's funniest film, to those with a taste for English mandarin scorn: the word unspoken, the sneer barely repressed, euphemism as an act of smart-club malice...
Running a close second to Streep in talent are rock singers Tracey Ullman and Sting, proving that the movie musical is by no means the only avenue open to today's talented musical celebrities. As Susan's unlikely bohemian sidekick Alice, Ullman provides the film with some strongly needed comic relief. Her entrance on screen is a treasure; waltzing into the office decked out in a man's pinstriped suit, she silences her employer's huffy outburst at her appearance, by remarking "Imagine what my boyfriend's boss is saying right now." Hare balances Alice's bohemianism with Susan...
...short, despite some fine performances by Streep, Ullman and Sting, Plenty is the fall season's most bitter disappointment. Had Schepisi and Hare been willing to sacrifice the artsy elements in favour of a more straightforward, biographical format, Plenty would have been more than enough...