Word: plot
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...distance. This "green land," he decided (in what might have been a clever bit of salesmanship), would be a perfect place to live. In 985 Erik returned triumphantly to Iceland and enlisted a group of followers to help him establish the first Norse outposts on Greenland. Claiming the best plot of land for himself, Erik established his base at Brattahlid, a verdant spot at the neck of a fjord on the island's southwestern tip, across from what is now the modern airport at Narsarsuaq. He carved out a farm and built his wife a tiny church, just...
...plot, familiar from the 1964 epic The Fall of the Roman Empire, is this: in A.D. 180, Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) is ailing. He anoints his best general, Maximus (Crowe), a man whose motto is "Strength and Honor," as Protector of Rome until it can again become a republic. Before announcing his decision, Marcus informs his son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), who lusts to be Emperor. Commodus is displeased by the news; he smothers Marcus in his bosom, murdering him with a filial embrace, and proclaims himself Emperor. In short order, the nasty boy has swiped Maximus' job, ordered...
Another, although comparatively muted explosion gets the plot moving in Brown's fifth novel, Half a Heart (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 402 pages; $24). The year is 1986, and Miriam Vener, Jewish and in her mid-40s, lives in Houston with her ophthalmologist husband Barry and their three children. Amid the splendors of her gated community and rambling, expensive house, Miriam sports a troubled conscience, for she has another child, a half-black daughter whom she has not seen in nearly 18 years. Her husband knows about this chapter of her life, closed before he met her: the time during...
...great thing about Woody Allen comedies is that they move almost frantically - that wispy plot summary I just gave you covers about 10 minutes of the film. Allen begins with a concept and then uses his 90-minute movies to explore every possible angle of it. In this case, the Winklers ride the wave of Allen's fantasies - extremely random circumstances of fate throw their lives into disarray constantly, but we get the feeling that it's Woody playfully throwing ideas around as to actually crafting character arcs. The script seems to pose questions: What happens if the Winklers struck...
Giving away too much of the plot would spoil the pic's comedic surprises, so I'll give you a barebones outline. Woody Allen plays Ray Winkler, a lowlife, an impractical dreamer, who has to put up with the constant nags of his wife Frenchy (Tracy Ullman). Ray spends his days conjuring schemes - usually illegal ones (he's done some hard time - yes, yes, imagining Woody Allen surviving time in a jail cell is part of the humor, I'm sure). This time, Ray notices that a store next to a bank is up for rent and convinces his friends...