Word: seemly
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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This self-mocking humor was a critical part of this installment of the Dar Experience. For every song, Dar has a story, shedding light on the sometimes-cryptic lyrics. Her warm, funny manner during these anecdotes made the Orpheum seem as intimate as a small club. She engaged the audience with stories that were as intelligent and entertaining as the songs themselves. Where else would a Dar fan find out that in her original vision for "The Christians and the Pagans" (yes, the title says it all), the chorus was to be sung by a giant hall of naked feminists...
Shyamalan effectively manipulates camera angles, perspective and the use of silence to create tension, but seems unsure about when to take his storyline seriously. Some of the film's most comic lines come at scenes with the most drama and the laughter in the theater disturbs the somber mood, while many short scenes seem tangential at best. The acting in the movie, including Robin Wright Penn and Spencer Treat Clark as Dunn's wife and son, is solid and the movie is technically impressive despite its holes in coherence...
...possible. The entire middle section of the movie is devoted to Dunn's deciding whether to believe Elijah's hypothesis about the accident. Shyamalan does an effective job of bringing the viewer along with the characters; the evidence Dunn considers and the conclusions he reaches are clear and seem logical. However, the larger ideas of the film are not as clear to the audience, and can leave many a viewer as a skeptic...
...other hand, not becoming president makes a man - in this case, two men - seem ever more ridiculous. History has gone outside the box. We don't get one prince, but two toads. Not one winner, but two losers. We react with derision and contempt...
...Throughout American history there has always been competition among the three principal branches of our government. That's what the framers wanted. Sometimes the executive has been ascendant while the courts and the legislature have seemed to hibernate. And sometimes Congress or the courts seem to take the lead in setting the currents of our society. At times of crisis in American history, the courts have often been the institution that helped steer the country to the right path. Brown v. Board of Education was a triumph of judicial activism and morality...