18 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
18 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
niagara niagara ( r ) bob gosse's niagara niagara follows a blueprint not unlike a lot of young-lovers-on-the-road movies .
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wild marcy ( robin tunney ) and calm seth ( henry thomas ) meet cute , literally running into each other while shoplifting at a local store .
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a mere couple of scenes later , the two embark on a journey to toronto from their small , unnamed american town in pursuit of a rare doll that marcy desperately wants .
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along the way , true love inevitably blossoms .
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what sets niagara niagara apart , though , is that marcy is afflicted with tourette's syndrome , a neurological disorder that causes sudden muscle and vocal tics .
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tunney , displaying an acting range not hinted at in the teenage witch thriller the craft , delivers an astonishing performance that won her the best actress prize at last year's venice film festival .
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to term her work a tour-de-force is not to imply that she attacks the scenery ; tunney's effectiveness lies in her modulation and vulnerability , which makes her depiction of marcy's illness--which often causes her to act violently--that much more convincing and tragic .
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she and the nicely subtle thomas develop a sweetly innocent and beguilingly off-kilter chemistry .
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their journey hits a few rough spots creatively along the way , mostly the fault of writer matthew weiss .
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a detour involving a kindly widower ( michael parks ) who takes the couple in brings the story to a screeching halt , and the key character of a trigger-happy pharmacist ( stephen lang ) is highly unbelievable .
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but these missteps do not blunt the power of tunney's bravura turn , which carries niagara niagara to a level of poignance it would not have otherwise achieved .
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( opens march 20 )
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" i didn't know what to expect .
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it's like something you chase for so long , but then you don't know how to react when you get it .
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i still don't know how to react . "
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--michael jordan , on winning his first nba championship in 1991 . . . or ,
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my thoughts after meeting him on november 21 , 1997
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