Word: awfulness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Damon, who like Blanchett and Paltrow was cast in the film before achieving Oscar-night eminence, knows how to emit charm--of the aw-shucks variety in The Rainmaker or streetwise in Good Will Hunting. Here, though, he is a plodder. Pasty white among the bronze gods of Mongibello, striding stiffly, with nerdy glasses adorning his pinched face, Damon could more easily be mistaken for the creepy losers Hoffman usually plays (in Boogie Nights or Happiness) than for a patrician hunk like Dickie. The deglamorizing of Ripley pays off beautifully in his final meeting with Freddie, who sees through...
...twinkle in his eye too. But at 5 ft. 7 in., he looks like a stray from the Mickey Mouse Club. He's kind of bashful and aw-shucks looking when bidding begins on his jacket, a rainbow-colored affair bearing the name of his main sponsor--DuPont automotive finishes. Bidding starts at $500 and ends at $10,000, and I am stunned. Not by the price but by the idea that someone might leave the house wearing such a thing...
...first Jack seems a bit trite because of his fabled old Western dialect of cute truisms and botched verbs, his "aw-shucks" likeability and his emphasis on his honest-to-God credibility. I was a bit critical about what might have been merely a tall-tale spun by a clever snake oil salesman, posing as a nice guy who had many incredible experiences. But the more I read, the more I was convinced of his absolute sincerity because of how human and tangible a character he really is. I thought I was listening to a storyteller speak rather than reading...
...dopey gondolier Marco, his fairly hearty (but once again too quiet) singing matched with an eye for physical comedy. Krishnan Unnikrishnan '02 is equally endearing and doltish as Giuseppe, fellow gondolier and possible heir-to-the-throne. Unnikrishnan hams it up remarkably well with lots of giggly smirks and "Aw, shucks" glances, but at times this silliness comes out as slightly effeminate camp--manly gondolieri do not typically bat their eyelashes when they're being serenaded by a lovely contadine. The two lead "lovely contadine" in this production are both well-chosen for their roles. Cary Rosko sings the part...
CHUCK KNOBLAUCH Pick up the ball, Chuck! Pick up the ball! Chuck! The ball! Yo, man, the ball! Aw, Chuck...