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Reversible Errors (2004 TV Movie)
8/10
Selleck is sadly Irreversible, but...
24 May 2004
Wm. H. Macy and Felicity Huffman make it worth watching.

Turow's complex novel has been dumbed down to fit the mini-series format, but that's a trifle. Watch it for the magic that Macy and Huffman bring to small screen.

These are two stars who would not get big screen attention as romantic leads, but their performances sing here, given a chance to play center stage.

Watch how Huffman, as a disbarred and disgraced judge, plays her scene at the dept. store cosmetic counter. In a matter of seconds, she expresses purposeful employment, unguarded hope, crumbling shame, and icy self-contempt.

Macy's opening scene on Labor Day weekend, packing up his office, brings his character to life with uncommon line readings. This script is hardly Mamet, but Macy's skill raises the level of the writing. He clips off one line, talking about his sister's death: "Better this way, instead of her living like a ..." He never says the word vegetable, as if he recognizes the inadequacy of the cliché. No he's not commenting on the script, but letting the character halt himself before dishonoring his dead sibling with dead metaphors.

Let's hope this husband and wife team both get Emmy Awards for such remarkable work. And let's hope we see more of them on the big screen too.
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10/10
What Every American Should Know About the Holocaust
12 May 2004
The creators of this documentary should be applauded for bringing this sad history to light. Through active obstruction, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees were denied visas by the US Dept. of State, making the US a silent partner in the Nazi's "final solution."

The evidence presented here will shock you. The hard won triumph of the activists who fought for the eventual War Refugee Council will uplift you.

If you have faith in our country and humanity, you will feel ashamed of our leaders who allowed us to collaborate, indirectly, with the Nazi regime.

By the end, there is a surprise that will move you to tears -- tears of admiration for the love and courage of one man who, despite the deceit of his government, risked his life for his adopted country to help defeat the Nazi's and liberate their victims.
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Intermission (2003)
9/10
Midsummer Night's Caper
25 April 2004
This one owes more to Shakespeare's mechanicals that Tarantino's gangsters, but "Intermission" never fully escapes the long shadow of "Pulp Fiction" and its knock offs.

Compared to "Kill Bill" though, this Irish caper comedy is fresh and satisfying. We can hope that someone at Miramax might sit QT down and say, look at this, punk, this involves human characters. You remember that, QT, don't you? Don't you?

I could complain that the plot twists are contrived in "Intermission" but that would bring me back to Shakespeare's comedies of love. Instead of fairy dust, the script has steak sauce to help tie things together, and an evil imp in a red jacket who hurls rocks at the windscreens of various comic scapegoats.

And like Shakespeare, not all the disappointed souls find exactly the same happiness. And there are sweet sorrows too: one scene between a widowed mother and her lonely daughter pierces the heart. And the filmmakers never once utilize a samurai sword to conjure these well earned emotions.
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Crimson Gold (2003)
1/10
Unwatchable Tedium
28 March 2004
I am baffled by critics who applaud something so poorly written, directed, and acted. This is a good case of The Emperor's New Clothes.

Instead of this tedious attempt at signifigance, I'd rather watch a double bill of The Bicycle Thief and Taxi Driver.

I love movies, but when I give up after a full hour, something must be wrong. In a word: pacing. Another word: cliché.

Certainly, there is a cachet in heralding an underdog film like this, banned in its home country, but the praise is a bit self-congratulatory, coming from Western critics.

Does the scene outside a luxury apartment -- where our hero is restrained by the police from delivering his pizzas -- does such a scene need a full third of the movie's running time?
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