Verdi's urge to distill operas down to their essence perhaps got the better of him, for "I Masnadieri" emerges as a string of separate scenes without much overall sweep.
The screenplay, by Seth Bass and Jonathan Tolins, based on a novel by David Gerrold, offers heartwarming, tearjerking, stand-up-and-cheer moments that only a golem could resist, but Meyjes never conjures a world, inner or outer, so the result is just a string of effective scenes, an illustrated script rather than an experience.
The lumbering, old-fashioned drama, without psychology or subtext, presses forward with an air of relentless foreboding before breaking out into a string of horrible scenes (such as the mess Jimmy makes at his sister's wedding or his squandering of the family's insurance policy).
The script, by Seth Bass and Jonathan Tolins, based on a novel by David Gerrold, offers irresistibly heartwarming, tear-jerking, stand-up-and-cheer moments, but Meyjes never conjures a world, inner or outer, so the result is just a string of effective scenes.
The screenplay, by Seth Bass and Jonathan Tolins, based on a novel by David Gerrold, offers heartwarming, tear-jerking, stand-up-and-cheer moments that only a golem could resist, but Meyjes never conjures a world, inner or outer, so the result is just a string of effective scenes, an illustrated script rather than an experience.
Director Rourke loads the play's first half with a string of slapstick scenes before events take a tragic turn at the wedding of Claudio (Tom Bateman) and Hero (Sarah MacRae).
We all imagine and we all bullshit but when you do it at a rate that is beyond your control (sans medication) your memories (and thus reality) comes to resemble a string of abstract scenes with your head floating over them, not unlike the truth shattering finale of last year's Twin Peaks: The Return.
Now "The Secret City" becomes a string of desperate dramatizations, scenes that wake Woodlawn's residents from their eternal slumber and plunge them into dialogue of dubious provenance.
There are a string of grittily compelling scenes in Schlesinger's well-made, New York-set thriller, adapted by William Goldman from his novel.
His knack of bringing dysfunctional families to life while avoiding an overabundance of quirk, as shown in Silver Linings Playbook and The Fighter, is at its most effective here with a string of perfectly choreographed scenes of domestic chaos.
