Word: understanding
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While the film’s subject matter is undoubtedly grave, Hancock—who directed “The Rookie,” another compelling underdog story, in 2002—seems to understand that there is inherent humor in the uncomfortable melding of seismically different socio-economic backgrounds, and he never stops effectively exploiting these moments of drama as simultaneous opportunities for humor. “Who’d have thought we’d have a black son before we knew a democrat?” remarks Leigh Anne’s understanding husband, Sean, played...
Leigh Anne’s relationship with Michael forms the soul of the story. Both characters are limited in what they can verbally communicate to each other, but their silences convey their mutual struggle as they attempt to understand their respective circumstances. As Michael, relative newcomer Aaron is a strong yet vulnerable gentle giant—or, as Leigh Anne affectionately terms him, Ferdinand the Bull, the hero of his favorite children’s book. Bullock, too, wholeheartedly inhabits her role as pushy, driven, no-nonsense Southern wife cum interior decorator, complete with a perfect accent no doubt drawn...
...Messenger” has a weakness, it comes at the end, when Montgomery falls in love with a widow named Olivia (Samantha Morton). Morton is powerful as always but Olivia’s plainness is such that we can never quite understand Montgomery’s intense attraction to her, making that storyline fall a bit flat. But this is a minor blip on the face of a memorable force of a film—one that captures emotion without theatricality, humor without insult, and hardship without self-pity. “The Messenger” delivers not just...
...become conscious as a young kid at age three.” “I was hit with the tidal wave of Black Power and the Black Arts movement,” he says of his teenage years. African American music and culture gave him a way to understand his Asian American identity, and he melded together these two influences in his explorations of jazz, which for him represents “the journey of the search for my identity and how we can achieve liberation...
...rules last Thursday restricting overdraft services to come into effect July 1. In case you missed the announcement, the new rules require banks to obtain the express approval of cardholders before signing them up for overdraft protection and to explain the policies in easy-to-understand language...