Word: scripting
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Assessing the quality of the ART's production is difficult when the script is so troubled Whether problems in pacing can be attributed to Joe Dowling's direction, or a refusal to cut lines, is unclear. Derek McLane's set, while visually impressive, crowds actors between two uninteresting tables and is a generally unwise use of space. In keeping with the standard of the script there is little that is striking or exceptional about this production...
...trite as the plot is, the main characters rescue it from oblivion. The trenchcoat-and-sunglass-clad, play-it-by-the-book Doug Chesnic is perfect contrast to the odd but kind Tess Carlisle. Several political references also spice up the dull script. Some are to past administrations, like when Tess says that all Agnew and Johnson ever did was play golf: "If was a blessing for the country." Others allude to Bill and Hillary. When Tess watches old news clips about her husband, the audience learns her Clinton-like history relatively painlessly. Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle met at Denison...
...someone in the movie said "our relatives are coming down from Boston for Christmas." I could only conclude that this wasn't Marblehead: the Marblehead I know lies about 17 miles north of Boston, adjacent to Salem. Thank God, I found out later through some gracious line in the script that the movie was supposed to take place in Connecticut. Confusion quelled, I could watch the rest of the movie with a clear mind...
...news followed by Kinnear wisecracks) and lots of prepared shtick to keep the interviews from bogging down in, say, real conversation. For Julia Louis-Dreyfus, he introduced a taped bit purporting to reveal that she is actually bald. For Martin Short, he took out a script of ! The Bodyguard and asked Short to read for the Kevin Costner part. The program's redeeming feature is Kinnear himself, who is confident and comfortable in his first talk-show gig. If he doesn't replace O'Brien within six months, NBC really does need psychiatric help...
...Sirens and Bitter Moon, is every inch the blithe aristocrat. MacDowell imports her Groundhog Day sweetness to a role that is more a fantasy than a character. And Rowan Atkinson has a cute turn as a tongue-tied cleric. Richard Curtis (The Tall Guy, Blackadder) has stocked his script with transatlantic gags (How many times has Carrie had sex? "Less than Madonna, more than Lady Di"). The movie strains a bit to prove it's all a lark, but because the mood is cunningly sunny, and the cast is so relaxed in its empyrean of casual sex and restorative love...