Word: comically
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EVERY RED-BLOODED and not-so-red-blooded American boy is brought up to hate the Germany of World War II. From Superman comic books to John Wayne movies to "games" of war (you remember--running around with a whiffle bat pretending it was a submachine gun), the German is always the had guy and the American is always the good one. World War II really satisfies the American need to classify things in terms of black and white because, unlike most wars, it really was black and white No one can really deny that the Nazis were evil, aggressive...
...German military cemetery visit wasn't a bad first. Anyone who has torn his eyes away from a Superman comic book to see the film Das Boot (The Boat) knows that German, yes German, can be sympathetic character. The him is about a German submarine crew and the fighting they have to endure-both against the enemy and against themselves. There are bad Nazis on board, but most of the crew are apolitical, beer-guzzling men of integnily who destroy boats because they are told to destroy boats. They don't enjoy it, and are just as atraid of being...
...jackets and florescent ties, costumes fit for any Spring Garden Party, ghosts portrayed with techniques most shamelessly existed from a horror Film seen this year-yes, Brad Dalton's... whatever? is all of this, three and one-half hours of all of this. Generally well-choreographed, often amusing, absurdly comic, emotionally unencumbering, less tedious than its length suggests, it has that same cheeky appeal as Duchamp's "Mona Lisa" or a bust of George Washington with a tinted-blue Mohawk: it makes us laugh well enough but makes us feel nothing...
...between what might have been drama, several supporting players, less perverted by innovation, give several memorable performances. Katherine Robin gives the most consistently impressive performance as Ophelia, giving us the most genuinely poignant sense of tragedy. For indispensible comic relief, don't miss Andrew Watson as the bumbling Polonius and Jim Caudle as the irreverent Gravedigger...
...serious side of De Vries has been subject to considerable analysis, most of it attempts to align the author's dour Dutch Calvinist upbringing with his development as a comic writer. To borrow a De Vriesian analogy, such treatment is like putting the reader into a diving bell and taking him down 3 ft. His latest novel counters that effect by granting his fans a chance to wet their feet once again in the forbidding shallows of sex, money and social class...