Word: maudlin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...nice things about plays that explore old friendships is the certainty that things will turn out well in the end. Though most dramas dealing with real life issues couldn't get away with a script comprised heavily of maudlin reminiscences and bittersweet quarreling, plays like Mame and Same Time, Next Year generally manage to leave their audiences feeling tearful and rejuvenated. Something about the unbreakable bond that links old friends seems to draw a smile from even the crustiest cynic...
Though part of the failure of Old Acquaintance lies with the trappings of a trite plot, the crux of the problem is simply poor acting. While some of the dialogue is admittedly maudlin bordering on corny, there is no excuse for butchering classic lines like. "Every man over 21 is another woman's cast off clothing." Moreover, if Weishan wanted to give the show the least bit of credibility, he might have atleast seen to it that teacups were filled with liquid and pipes with tobacco...
During the latter scene, Phoebe is wearing a pair of shapeless sweat-pants, child's baseball cap in bright blue and a particularly loud sweater. The movie does no better with comedy than with romance--scenes that are not maudlin tend to be pathetic. There is a pronounced effort to make the cast look as unappealing as possible, presumably to add a comic touch and to scoff convention. "Who does your wardrobe, Quasimodo?" Jason asks Phoebe in one of his lucid moments...
That New Order has a healthy maudlin streak within its self-important consciousness is displayed on the radio single "Age of Consent." While the song works musically and the few whoops and falsetto yips from Albrecht are a much-needed change from the somberness of the rest of the disk, it is lyrically awkward...
...Scarsdale's "Diet Doc" Herman Tarnower Moreover, because it follows extensive media coverage of the affair, it is disappointing that Alexander adds so little new. While the amount of journalistic detail she has amassed is impressive, her prose style often flounder and she colors her commentary with a maudlin sympathy for murderess Jean Harris, a woman who, in her words, "reminds...