Word: sentimentalized
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...Swingtime Canteen is not an excuse for a drag show. It is an evocative balancing act of music and comedy, parody and sentiment. The girls strut their tight harmonies with an Andrews Sisters medley--12 songs!--that's a wowser. And they escalate into feeling with I'll Be Seeing You. This gorgeous rendition works as a reminder of what the boys were fighting for, and what any struggle--war in the '40s, AIDS in the '90s--means to the combatants: pain and loss, and a sweet, frail hope...
Magic realism dictates, moreover, that they be archetypes: Grandpa (Anthony Quinn) is a lusty old windbag; Dad (Giancarlo Giannini) is an uneasy martinet; Mom (Angelica Aragon) is full of soft romantic sentiment. They also, of course, have a fierce, primitive, mystical relationship with the land that nurtures them. The stranger must embrace the acreage before he can embrace their daughter...
...years in a richly emotional encounter with her husband. It is not, mostly, about anger; it is about self-astonishment--at all she had inside her; at her unexpected (and scary) bravado in letting it out. Her performance is emblematic of a movie that, a few sideslips into familiar sentiment aside (they usually involve Grace's child, played by Haley Aull), never lets its political correctness interfere with its delight in human incorrectness...
...cinematography also could have saved the movie. In some scenes, the images were resplendent with rich color and perfect lighting. But at times, it's overdone and positively drips sentiment...
...lets his actors breathe in an easy, unforced way. And Gena Rowlands is simply great in a scene where she breaks the silence of the years in a richly emotional encounter with her husband. "Her performance," says Shickel, "is emblematic of a movie that, a few sideslips into familiar sentiment aside, never lets its political correctness interfere with its delight in human incorrectness...