As its first scene promises, it is a dream-like book, but not exactly a reverie: more like one of those visceral dreams bobbing with household objects and Freudian faces that will haunt you for months, if not years.
In its New York incarnation it appears to be dead from its first scene.
Portraying a murder victim who returns to haunt his killers in the show's second act, a young actor named Norbert Leo Butz provides this fascinatingly ill-assembled production with something it has been aching for since its first scene: a shot of showbiz adrenaline.
"Looking" establishes this generational theme in its first scene, in which Paddy goes cruising, very briefly.
Its first scene, set in 1991, introduces Henry Deaver (played in the present day by André Holland).
Its first scene is a ballet of illusion for three pairs of hands and feet rendered luminous in blue against a black background.
The film's tone is set by its first scene, which features her lying prone on a beach towel wearing nothing but sunshine, and throughout, she sashays through her scenes to highlight her pneumatic wherewithal.
Mr. Nichols's most distinct aesthetic choice is the movie's quietness and the hush that envelops its first scene and that eventually defines the Lovings as much as their accents, gestures, manners and battles.
That's because its first scene is essentially a sustained aria of nervous energy for Mr. Butz, whose inventively modulated intensity brings to mind the young John Malkovich hijacking the stage with his opening monologue in Lanford Wilson's "Burn This" some 25 years ago.
In its first scene, set at the Funkytown Disco in Bombay — year: 1983 — "Himmatwala" loads on the period markers, with quick nods to Michael Jackson, Madonna and, of course, the reign of disco in a song-and-dance number (called "Thank God It's Friday," no less) full of flashing lights and silver-clad hoofers.
