Lance Daly
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Tempest Tossed: Life’s a Breeze
Life’s a Breeze has nothing to do with an illusory sense of existential ease and simplicity. It is in fact a brand name that is heavily embossed on the exterior of a small plastic room deodorizer, which screws into a door jamb — or several, like in the revamped two-story flat of 79-year-old Nan (Fionnula Flanagan), an ornery but soft-spoken hoarder. In the first of several badly calculated surprises, her loving but smilingly mercenary middle-aged children throw out piles of moldy papers and replace unsalvageable furnishings and tchotchkes with up-to-date Ikea and such: recognizable brands. The idiom is itself ironic, […]
by Howard Feinstein on Sep 18, 2014 -
TIME IN A BOTTLE: “THE GOOD DOCTOR”
After leaving his native Britain for the U.S., Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom) begins his residency in general medicine in a chaotic, understaffed hospital in an unspecified coastal city. This well-mannered, middle-class young man is vying for a fellowship in infectious diseases. Unfortunately, he is off to a bad start: He falls out with a powerful nurse, Theresa (Taraji P. Henson); and he inadvertently endangers a non-English-speaking patient with a potentially lethal dose of penicillin. Screenwriter John Enbom succeeds in a difficult balancing act: The more events point to Martin’s culpability in two deaths, the greater his superiors’ enthusiasm for his work. […]
by Howard Feinstein on Aug 29, 2012
