Word: watsons
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...Heaven of Mercury is a tale of luckless love. This first novel by Brad Watson, former Briggs-Copeland Lecturer on English and American Literature and Languagea at Harvard, traces the lives of Finus Bates and Birdie Wells, prominent residents of an imagined Southern city called Mercury. Watson creates a patchwork of anecdotes narrated by many colorful characters in his attempt to knit together the convergent histories of these two protagonists...
When asked why, if this is a love story, his characters don’t live happily ever after, Watson says, “I think all too often people don’t end up with the love of their lives. They end up with someone they love okay and they stick it out, or they don’t. Finus and Birdie never get together, and to some extent it’s a result of bad timing, the odd luck of timing, that so often keeps people so right for each other apart...
Anderson’s story begins with Barry in the dumps, burdened with a trying job and a smothering family, and goes on to track his journey towards happiness and fulfillment. Barry’s catalyst for this journey comes in the form of Lena Leonard (Emily Watson), with whom Barry becomes so smitten that he follows her on a trip to Hawaii. At the same time, he gets to exercise his developing backbone when he becomes the target of a extortionist phone sex operator who dispatches goons to shake Barry down for cash...
...Watson, it must be noted, is excellent as Lena, suffusing her with a tender, huge-eyed docility that’s an able contrast to Barry’s bouts of high emotion. Nearly as good in tiny roles are Anderson veterans Luis Guzman as Barry’s eternally arch-faced co-worker and the ever-sublime Philip Seymour Hoffman as a crass Utah entrepreneur...
...little more than a pretentious and immature child. Either way, most agreed that he was one of the most original of the modern filmmakers, a belief that will be further cemented with the release of his new film, Punch-Drunk Love, a romantic comedy featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson...