Then the husband performs a simple, startling act that turns joy into chilling embarrassment, and the party is over.
To read her is to observe a young woman flaying herself open in a startling act of devotion.
Foxcatcher is downright disturbing, a slowly accreting study of dysfunction and dependence that erupts in a startling act of violence.
The leaders were rebuffed, a startling act of insubordination for a group that prides itself on strict hierarchy and iron discipline.
No longer possessed of her usual mask, Charlotte is forced to gaze inward and discovers a void, albeit a void rendered with self-deprecating wit and the occasional startling act (a desperate seduction involves drunkenly spitting liquor into the mouth of a man who's trying to stay sober).
According to Entertainment Weekly, the first season of the show follows a young mother named Cora (Biel) who randomly commits a startling act of violence.
For one thing, the lines between good and evil are muddy and shifting, so that the most wicked characters are capable of startling acts of heroism and sacrifice.
See more startling acts on "Freakshow," Thursdays at 9 30 p.m. ET on AMC.
And that's saying a lot, considering the impressive four-day lineup that included startling acts making their Telluride debuts such as The Head and the Heart and Trampled by Turtles appearing on the same stage as music legends Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris and Bela Fleck.
I suppose I should briefly outline the first act of this startling work, when we meet Vera Stark working as a maid to a feather-brained, young, blond actress, Gloria Mitchell (played by Amanda Deymer), known as "America's little sweetie pie," the Lindsay Lohan of her day.
