Flimsy, numbingly slow, melodramatic, Era Uma Vez . . ., from Brazil, would be easier to dismiss if it weren’t for a smattering of moments—altogether, about ten minutes of the two-hour film—that resonate humanely, principally around the character of Bernadete, a decent woman who ends up losing her three sons to slum violence. Directed by […]
Daily Archives: January 22, 2010
Norma Shearer, at the time the wife of M-G-M’s supreme bastard, production head Irving Thalberg, won a best actress Oscar* as Jerry Martin in Robert Z. Leonard’s The Divorcee, a “smart,” fast society melodrama based on Ursula Parrott’s novel Ex-Wife. Stagy, stilted though verbally snappy, with Shearer lah-dee-dahing past all limits of endurance, the film […]
Dennis Grunes 