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This is an endlessly fascinating filming of a play in rehearsal - we meet the actors as they congregate at an old theater on 42nd Street that is scheduled for demolition. So natural is the acting that we don't realize that the actors have begun the play until one of the characters mentions a samovar... The cast is uniformly excellent -- with the exception of Wallace Shawn -- whose obvious choices and broadly comic persona make us aware that he's attempting to ACT while everyone else seems to truly inhabit their characters. Particularly notable are Julianne Moore, Larry Pine and Brooke Smith. This is a heartbreaking version of a difficult play (thank goodness for close-ups - the extended scene between Sonya and Yelena would be torture on-stage - it's brilliant on-screen. If only we'd gotten an ACTOR (rather than an odd personality) in the role of Vanya, it would have been perfect.
score 9/10
jereco 19 November 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1219331/ |
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9-3-2021 04:52:09