My daughter Cat Nelson and her older son Jay, almost 13, go to a lot of movies together. They have decided to created a blog reviewing some of these films. Here is there blog: http://momandsonatthemovies.blogspot.com./
Their first reviews are about ARGO, one of the best of 2012.
Last night we skipped the Grammys in favor of a two hour episode of DOWNTON ABBEY. Surprise!! Lots of surprises for both top side and bottom galley at the Abbey, all ending with a smashing game of cricket!
Now to the Grammys, or should I say, through the Grammys. As a side note, I would like to thank the genius(es) who gave us the dvd recorder. Just think, I could zip through the 3 and a half hour Grammy Awards in an hour and a half, eliminating all commercials and any reference to hip hop or rap (almost, they seemed to sneak into other musical types). Yes, I know a 73 year old granddad shouldn't be watching the Grammys, but I can't resist the sets, the lights, and the outfits. Highlights? Carrie Underwood's silver dress which shimmered with butterflies, fields of blue, etc. Justin Timberlake's smashing big band riff--this guy just gets better and better. Frank Ocean and Bruno Mars, the latter teaming up with Sting in a tribute to Bob Marley. And there were the usual lows: Rhiana and her ilk were zapped, thanks to my trusty dvd recorder!
Monday, February 11, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
THE IMPOSSIBLE Made Possible
The New Yorker opined that watching the new film THE IMPOSSIBLE was almost impossible. For once, I agree with one of their critics. THE IMPOSSIBLE recounts the incredible tsunami that took over 230,000 lives in Southeast Asia in 2004 and its aftermath through the lives of one family. Directed by Spanish director J.A. Bayona, this film concentrates on the Bennett family as they attempt to survive the disaster. Based on a true events, the screenplay has taken a Spanish family's experience and given it universal appeal in the Bennetts whose nationality is not disclosed.
On that fateful Boxing Day, Maria Belon watched her husband Quique Alvarez and their three sons swept away with trees, cars, and even destroyed buildings. After several days of extreme suffering, the family was finally reunited at a field hospital where Maria had been brought by Thai volunteers. These events are imagined in harrowing detail in the film. Naomi Watts plays Maria Bennett, a doctor, and Ewan MacGregor is her husband Henry. After the initial wave, Maria and her oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) cling to trees, endure yet another massive wave, and are eventually aided by Thai citizens who themselves are suffering the effects and losses of the storm. By this time Maria's wounds are so severe her life hangs in the balance.
Back at their wrecked hotel Henry believes that all of his family is gone until he discovers his two youngest sons nearby. He makes the difficult decision to put the boys on a refugee truck while he stays to search for his wife. Interweaving these two stories, the director creates considerable suspense as well as empathy for the family members and for other survivors. The physicality of their suffering and striving to survive is rendered in graphic detail. However, the emotional upheaval is what makes this film so difficult to watch. That comes primarily from two sources. First, the director chooses to include scenes with other desperate victims suffering or searching for loved ones. Second, he has chosen almost perfect actors for the Bennetts. They are all memorable, but young Tom Holland as Lucas carries the dramatic heft of the film. He literally becomes a man in seeing his wounded mother through this crisis. Holland's expressions of despair and hope are so painful to watch that the viewer is tempted to turn away weeping. This is one of the finest juvenile performances I have ever seen, and it recalls a similar amazing performance, that of a twelve year old Christian Bale in Spielberg's EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987), where he played a young Brit who is forced to survive for years in a Japanese concentration camp.
THE IMPOSSIBLE is a film that encompasses heroism, tragedy, and family love. So it's difficult to watch? Yes, but also moving and eventually transforming. SEE IT.
On that fateful Boxing Day, Maria Belon watched her husband Quique Alvarez and their three sons swept away with trees, cars, and even destroyed buildings. After several days of extreme suffering, the family was finally reunited at a field hospital where Maria had been brought by Thai volunteers. These events are imagined in harrowing detail in the film. Naomi Watts plays Maria Bennett, a doctor, and Ewan MacGregor is her husband Henry. After the initial wave, Maria and her oldest son Lucas (Tom Holland) cling to trees, endure yet another massive wave, and are eventually aided by Thai citizens who themselves are suffering the effects and losses of the storm. By this time Maria's wounds are so severe her life hangs in the balance.
Back at their wrecked hotel Henry believes that all of his family is gone until he discovers his two youngest sons nearby. He makes the difficult decision to put the boys on a refugee truck while he stays to search for his wife. Interweaving these two stories, the director creates considerable suspense as well as empathy for the family members and for other survivors. The physicality of their suffering and striving to survive is rendered in graphic detail. However, the emotional upheaval is what makes this film so difficult to watch. That comes primarily from two sources. First, the director chooses to include scenes with other desperate victims suffering or searching for loved ones. Second, he has chosen almost perfect actors for the Bennetts. They are all memorable, but young Tom Holland as Lucas carries the dramatic heft of the film. He literally becomes a man in seeing his wounded mother through this crisis. Holland's expressions of despair and hope are so painful to watch that the viewer is tempted to turn away weeping. This is one of the finest juvenile performances I have ever seen, and it recalls a similar amazing performance, that of a twelve year old Christian Bale in Spielberg's EMPIRE OF THE SUN (1987), where he played a young Brit who is forced to survive for years in a Japanese concentration camp.
THE IMPOSSIBLE is a film that encompasses heroism, tragedy, and family love. So it's difficult to watch? Yes, but also moving and eventually transforming. SEE IT.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Television Just Got Its Game Back
Looking for some smart, involving, and almost addictive tv shows. Look no further than the new NETFLIX series HOUSE OF CARDS, created by David Fincher (SEVEN, FIGHT CLUB, THE SOCIAL NETWORK) and starring Kevin Spacey (Oscars for the classic THE USUAL SUSPECTS and AMERICAN BEAUTY) as Frank Underwood, a scheming powerful politician. What's unusual about this series is that one can stream the entire first season and watch any or all of it any time he wishes.
There are strong similarities to THE WEST WING, a beloved paen to liberal goodness, but there are fewer good guys here and many more Machivellian tricks. Frank is the trickmaster. As House Majority Whip he gets things done through intimidation, lying, and making people do bad things and feel good about it. Spacey, who last year starred as Richard the Third in a world tour, is perfect in the role. He and his writers have gone back to the bard and used the dramatic aside as humorous plot device. After Frank stabs a colleague in the back, the turns to us, the tv audience and slyly makes us his confederates in his manuevering. A screen technique that Laurence Olivier perfected in HAMLET and especially in RICHARD THE THIRD, it works even better on television (MODERN FAMILY is a prime example).
Frank is aided and abetted by his sleekly amoral wife, played to perfection by Robin Wright. Yes, Buttercup from THE PRINCESS BRIDE...still gorgeous but definitely not innocent. She and the rest of the supporting cast give depth to this drama, but the star is Kevin Spacey, who can jump from Southern charm at the pulpit to vengeful skulduggery and then turn to the audience and wink.
Two other shows that entertain and challenge the intellect as well. In its second season PERSON OF INTEREST is a clever mystery that exploits modern technology and the espionage genre. A brilliant scientist (a perfectly cast Michael Emerson from LOST) has created a computer that can spot someone in peril in New York City. He enlists a former CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) with nothing to lose and plenty of muscle to protect the the designated victim. The two make a terrific odd couple, one brainy and eccentric and the other brawny and filled with dark secrets.
ELEMENTARY is anything but. Yet another take on the Sherlock Holmes legend, this procedural has Sherlock in New York assisting the police with his razor-sharp logic, but also in rehab for his drug habit. The big twist here is that Dr. Watson is a woman, played by Lucy Liu, who is at first Sherlock's care-taker but gradually his assistant. She's not the bumbling sidekick of Doyle's original stories. English actor Johnny Lee Miller makes an antic but compelling Holmes and Liu is a smart and patient foil.
All three of these series are intelligent and fast-paced entertainment, a rarity in programs today.
There are strong similarities to THE WEST WING, a beloved paen to liberal goodness, but there are fewer good guys here and many more Machivellian tricks. Frank is the trickmaster. As House Majority Whip he gets things done through intimidation, lying, and making people do bad things and feel good about it. Spacey, who last year starred as Richard the Third in a world tour, is perfect in the role. He and his writers have gone back to the bard and used the dramatic aside as humorous plot device. After Frank stabs a colleague in the back, the turns to us, the tv audience and slyly makes us his confederates in his manuevering. A screen technique that Laurence Olivier perfected in HAMLET and especially in RICHARD THE THIRD, it works even better on television (MODERN FAMILY is a prime example).
Frank is aided and abetted by his sleekly amoral wife, played to perfection by Robin Wright. Yes, Buttercup from THE PRINCESS BRIDE...still gorgeous but definitely not innocent. She and the rest of the supporting cast give depth to this drama, but the star is Kevin Spacey, who can jump from Southern charm at the pulpit to vengeful skulduggery and then turn to the audience and wink.
Two other shows that entertain and challenge the intellect as well. In its second season PERSON OF INTEREST is a clever mystery that exploits modern technology and the espionage genre. A brilliant scientist (a perfectly cast Michael Emerson from LOST) has created a computer that can spot someone in peril in New York City. He enlists a former CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) with nothing to lose and plenty of muscle to protect the the designated victim. The two make a terrific odd couple, one brainy and eccentric and the other brawny and filled with dark secrets.
ELEMENTARY is anything but. Yet another take on the Sherlock Holmes legend, this procedural has Sherlock in New York assisting the police with his razor-sharp logic, but also in rehab for his drug habit. The big twist here is that Dr. Watson is a woman, played by Lucy Liu, who is at first Sherlock's care-taker but gradually his assistant. She's not the bumbling sidekick of Doyle's original stories. English actor Johnny Lee Miller makes an antic but compelling Holmes and Liu is a smart and patient foil.
All three of these series are intelligent and fast-paced entertainment, a rarity in programs today.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
There doesn't seem to be a lack of good fiction these days. Here are several novels I highly recommend:
1. Mark Helprin's long and often beautifully written IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW attempts to give the Manhattan following World War II an aura of glistening hope for the future. Helprin's prose attempts to conjure the magical writing style of F. Scott Fitzgerald who defined a generation in the 1920's and described its and his decline in the 1930's.
Harry Copeland, a World War II veteran who has seen the darkest depths of human depravity, is determined to seize the opportunities of the new Manhattan and achieve personal greatness, not just wealth, but a true mission of personal fulfillment. On a ferry one morning he falls in love with Catherine Thomas Hale and pursues her as if she were a Greek goddess. Along the way he must break up her engagement to a controlling sadist, win over her upper class parents, and fend off the Mafiosas trying to take over his late father's business. Throughout the novel, Harry's actions are propelled by his sense of honor and his overwhelming love for Catherine.
Like Fitzgerald's Gatsby striving for that green light at the end of the dock, Harry pushes forward against almost impossible odds...and we know what happened to Gatsby. Helprin's writing is full of romantic longing, heroic action, and moral imperative, and it is also 200 pages too long. IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW is a great read, but only if you have time. Fitzgerald had a great editor; Helprin needs one.
Sebastian Faulks' A POSSIBLE LIFE is called a novel in five parts. That designation suggests a thematic or narrative unity among the five longish stories Faulks has crafted. And "crafted" is the operative word. All five stories or character studies are written with grace and sympathy but also with tough and unsentimental reality on occasionally harsh truths. In the first and best of the tales, a callow young Englishman volunteers for the foreign service in World War II and eventually survives a Nazi death camp. After the war he returns to teaching but never fully recovers from or understands what has happened to him.
Another story examines an illiterate French servant maid whose life is touched by her encounter with a young priest in the 19th Century. The strangest tale takes place in Italy during the late 21st Century as a brilliant scientist discovers how the brain controls emotion but finds she cannot control her own longing for happiness. A third story seems be from Dickens. A poor boy in a beastly workhouse manages to build a life for himself but forgets some of the lessons of charity he learned as he pushes tenants out to further his business. And, finally there is an obvious nod to singers like Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell. They and other "magical muses" are embodied in one mercurial and gifted singer-songwriter who is loved by an English rocker who supports her and is eventually left to wonder why she deserted him.
So, where, Mr. Faulks, is the unifying theme in these five stories? Is it the longing for deeper emotion or answers that all of the five major characters share? Is it their collective striving for betterment in a world that fights against such aims? I'm not sure I cannot agree with Faulks that A POSSIBLE LIFE is really a novel. But I can say that it is a memorable reading experience where we become deeply involved with five beautifully developed characters.
1. Mark Helprin's long and often beautifully written IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW attempts to give the Manhattan following World War II an aura of glistening hope for the future. Helprin's prose attempts to conjure the magical writing style of F. Scott Fitzgerald who defined a generation in the 1920's and described its and his decline in the 1930's.
Harry Copeland, a World War II veteran who has seen the darkest depths of human depravity, is determined to seize the opportunities of the new Manhattan and achieve personal greatness, not just wealth, but a true mission of personal fulfillment. On a ferry one morning he falls in love with Catherine Thomas Hale and pursues her as if she were a Greek goddess. Along the way he must break up her engagement to a controlling sadist, win over her upper class parents, and fend off the Mafiosas trying to take over his late father's business. Throughout the novel, Harry's actions are propelled by his sense of honor and his overwhelming love for Catherine.
Like Fitzgerald's Gatsby striving for that green light at the end of the dock, Harry pushes forward against almost impossible odds...and we know what happened to Gatsby. Helprin's writing is full of romantic longing, heroic action, and moral imperative, and it is also 200 pages too long. IN SUNLIGHT AND IN SHADOW is a great read, but only if you have time. Fitzgerald had a great editor; Helprin needs one.
Sebastian Faulks' A POSSIBLE LIFE is called a novel in five parts. That designation suggests a thematic or narrative unity among the five longish stories Faulks has crafted. And "crafted" is the operative word. All five stories or character studies are written with grace and sympathy but also with tough and unsentimental reality on occasionally harsh truths. In the first and best of the tales, a callow young Englishman volunteers for the foreign service in World War II and eventually survives a Nazi death camp. After the war he returns to teaching but never fully recovers from or understands what has happened to him.
Another story examines an illiterate French servant maid whose life is touched by her encounter with a young priest in the 19th Century. The strangest tale takes place in Italy during the late 21st Century as a brilliant scientist discovers how the brain controls emotion but finds she cannot control her own longing for happiness. A third story seems be from Dickens. A poor boy in a beastly workhouse manages to build a life for himself but forgets some of the lessons of charity he learned as he pushes tenants out to further his business. And, finally there is an obvious nod to singers like Judy Collins or Joni Mitchell. They and other "magical muses" are embodied in one mercurial and gifted singer-songwriter who is loved by an English rocker who supports her and is eventually left to wonder why she deserted him.
So, where, Mr. Faulks, is the unifying theme in these five stories? Is it the longing for deeper emotion or answers that all of the five major characters share? Is it their collective striving for betterment in a world that fights against such aims? I'm not sure I cannot agree with Faulks that A POSSIBLE LIFE is really a novel. But I can say that it is a memorable reading experience where we become deeply involved with five beautifully developed characters.
Monday, January 21, 2013
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK...a quirky, pleasing surprise
I have seen two movies in the last two weeks: GANGSTER SQUAD and SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK. First, let me dismiss the former with a slight bit of praise. It's great to look at. All those sleek '50s autos, beautiful women in sexy gowns, and a recreated LA back in its glory days. In the foreground we have Emma Stone, a slightly younger and far less sexy version of Lauren Bacall as gang boss Mickey Cohen's moll and smartly fashionable Ryan Gosling as a police officer who seems to wear a completely different GQ outfit in each scene. One knows how Emma affords her smokin' hot gowns, but how does a cop manage Gosling's wardrobe? Well, that about sums up the depth of this movie.
On the positive side, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK doesn't depend on surfaces; instead, it goes for the gut. Directed by David O. Russell who also adapted the screenplay, this comedic drama confronts mental illness and loss with humor and grit. The first half of the movie may be unsettling for some. Bradley Cooper, in a surprisingly moving performance, plays Pat Solitano, a young man who has a bi-polar disorder and has come home after being committed for eight months. Robert DeNiro and Jacki Weaver play his parents, and Jennifer Lawrence is Tiffany Maxwell, a young widow who has become a sex addict. This is a combustible group. Add the Philadelphia Eagles, a Dancing with the Stars type dance contest, and a cast of warm and shopworn supporting players, and we have a heady mix of genres and character types. Director Russell, who made the screwball comedy FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, the Iraqi antiwar comedy THREE KINGS, and the boxing drama THE FIGHTER, brings his unique knack for character development to SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
Pat is a young man who is desperate to get back on track after his breakdown but fumbles again and again with his parents and a strange and abrupt young widow. As a background, Pat's parents are overly supportive but don't know what to do to help their son. Dad wants to connect with his obsession for the Philadelphia Eagles. Tiffany is an angry young woman who is also trying to redefine herself. This oddball assortment manages to keep this film from becoming overly depressing and overly sentimental, a rare balancing act. Lawrence is both abrasive and vulnerable as the young widow, and DeNiro redeems himself after fifteen or so years of terrible movies (Meet the Parents, et al). But the real star is director/writer David O. Russell who has developed such memorable characters in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
On the positive side, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK doesn't depend on surfaces; instead, it goes for the gut. Directed by David O. Russell who also adapted the screenplay, this comedic drama confronts mental illness and loss with humor and grit. The first half of the movie may be unsettling for some. Bradley Cooper, in a surprisingly moving performance, plays Pat Solitano, a young man who has a bi-polar disorder and has come home after being committed for eight months. Robert DeNiro and Jacki Weaver play his parents, and Jennifer Lawrence is Tiffany Maxwell, a young widow who has become a sex addict. This is a combustible group. Add the Philadelphia Eagles, a Dancing with the Stars type dance contest, and a cast of warm and shopworn supporting players, and we have a heady mix of genres and character types. Director Russell, who made the screwball comedy FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, the Iraqi antiwar comedy THREE KINGS, and the boxing drama THE FIGHTER, brings his unique knack for character development to SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
Pat is a young man who is desperate to get back on track after his breakdown but fumbles again and again with his parents and a strange and abrupt young widow. As a background, Pat's parents are overly supportive but don't know what to do to help their son. Dad wants to connect with his obsession for the Philadelphia Eagles. Tiffany is an angry young woman who is also trying to redefine herself. This oddball assortment manages to keep this film from becoming overly depressing and overly sentimental, a rare balancing act. Lawrence is both abrasive and vulnerable as the young widow, and DeNiro redeems himself after fifteen or so years of terrible movies (Meet the Parents, et al). But the real star is director/writer David O. Russell who has developed such memorable characters in SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
The Good....and Both the Bad and the Ugly
I must confess that I cheated when I went to the movies this week. My friend's choice was DJANGO. When we arrived at the theater, the manager informed us the heat was off. This was a two hour, 50 minute movie, and I couldn't handle Tarantino and freezing temps. The manager was gracious; he gave us free popcorn and a free drink and allowed me to see PROMISED LAND while my friend enjoyed his choice in the arctic.
PROMISED LAND sounds like another message or political movie, but it is much better than that. It deals with the controversial subject of fracking and considers both the pros and cons of that process in obtaining "clean" natural gas instead of coal and oil. Matt Damon has perfected playing the common man, a man with purpose, a conscience, and doubts. He may be the Jimmy Stewart of our time. Here he plays Steve Butler, an advance pitchman for a huge oil company. His co-worker Sue Thomason is a single mother played by Frances McDormand (FARGO). Both are warm, humorous characters who believe in what they are doing, but things don't go smoothly. The smartest man in town is a crusty old science teacher embodied by who else--Hal Holbrook. He asks for a vote by the townspeople to be held in several weeks. Then a seemingly gung-ho environmentalist (John Krasinski) turns up the heat of opposition. Steve finds himself in a battle for his career but he also finds himself doubting the validity of what he is selling. The film is thoughtful, sincere, and dramatically engaging without being preachy, and Matt Damon (co-writer) deserves the lion's share of the credit.
However, I still had 40 minutes to kill and no book to read, so I sneaked into the icebox and endured the end of DJANGO, a potboiler that is one part spaghetti western, one part MANDINGO (a ghastly exploitation film from 1975), and three parts torture, bloody violence, and sadism. Django has teamed up with a German bounty hunter, and together they plan to rescue Django's wife from a half-crazed plantation owner (hammed to overkill by Leonardo DiCaprio). SPOILER: he achieves his goal only after killing dozens of nasty white slavers, being brutally tortured himself, blowing up the plantation, etc., etc. Like Tarantino's earlier films, this one revels in its excess and leaves no lasting moral lessons. Avoid at all costs...even a free admission. You've got to wonder what the Academy was thinking when this stinker was nominated for Best Picture along side LINCOLN, LIFE OF PI, and LES MISERABLES.
PROMISED LAND sounds like another message or political movie, but it is much better than that. It deals with the controversial subject of fracking and considers both the pros and cons of that process in obtaining "clean" natural gas instead of coal and oil. Matt Damon has perfected playing the common man, a man with purpose, a conscience, and doubts. He may be the Jimmy Stewart of our time. Here he plays Steve Butler, an advance pitchman for a huge oil company. His co-worker Sue Thomason is a single mother played by Frances McDormand (FARGO). Both are warm, humorous characters who believe in what they are doing, but things don't go smoothly. The smartest man in town is a crusty old science teacher embodied by who else--Hal Holbrook. He asks for a vote by the townspeople to be held in several weeks. Then a seemingly gung-ho environmentalist (John Krasinski) turns up the heat of opposition. Steve finds himself in a battle for his career but he also finds himself doubting the validity of what he is selling. The film is thoughtful, sincere, and dramatically engaging without being preachy, and Matt Damon (co-writer) deserves the lion's share of the credit.
However, I still had 40 minutes to kill and no book to read, so I sneaked into the icebox and endured the end of DJANGO, a potboiler that is one part spaghetti western, one part MANDINGO (a ghastly exploitation film from 1975), and three parts torture, bloody violence, and sadism. Django has teamed up with a German bounty hunter, and together they plan to rescue Django's wife from a half-crazed plantation owner (hammed to overkill by Leonardo DiCaprio). SPOILER: he achieves his goal only after killing dozens of nasty white slavers, being brutally tortured himself, blowing up the plantation, etc., etc. Like Tarantino's earlier films, this one revels in its excess and leaves no lasting moral lessons. Avoid at all costs...even a free admission. You've got to wonder what the Academy was thinking when this stinker was nominated for Best Picture along side LINCOLN, LIFE OF PI, and LES MISERABLES.
Monday, January 7, 2013
DOWNTON ABBEY Returns!
The anticipation in some circles for Season III of DOWNTON ABBEY has been as feverish as children wishing for Santa. And last night fans were not disappointed. SPOILER ALERT. At the end of Season Two, we left the Abbey as Matthew and Lady Mary kissed their conflicts away under a fairy tale snowfall in front of the abbey. In the new season there are continuing problems, new crises, and lush settings and wardrobes. I am somewhat reminded of Ross Hunter's visually stunning melodramas from the late 1950's and early 1960's: Lana Turner suffering in high style in IMITATION OF LIFE (1959) and Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson finding love and redemption in MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954) and ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1954). The heroines endured heartbreak, but their spectacular clothes and homes never let them down. So is the case at Downton Abbey where the upstairs crowd dresses for dinner each night. No character is as resplendent as Lady Mary in an array of dresses that are simple, elegant, and richly colored. When she walks down the stairs in her wedding dress, we are tempted to rewind and watch again and again.
But there are some problems with the first episode of Season III, one of which is the writing and general shaping of Martha Levinson, played by Shirley Maclaine. It is hard to believe that the classy Lady Cora could be the daughter of this coarse and unattractive woman. This was an injustice to Maclaine and the character. Thomas is his usual venal self. When he offers to help the new footman and spite his former mentor O'Brian, one wants to hiss or warn his prey, again a ploy of good old-fashioned melodrama. But despite these flaws, DOWNTON ABBEY remains one of the most enjoyable, satisfying shows on television.
But there are some problems with the first episode of Season III, one of which is the writing and general shaping of Martha Levinson, played by Shirley Maclaine. It is hard to believe that the classy Lady Cora could be the daughter of this coarse and unattractive woman. This was an injustice to Maclaine and the character. Thomas is his usual venal self. When he offers to help the new footman and spite his former mentor O'Brian, one wants to hiss or warn his prey, again a ploy of good old-fashioned melodrama. But despite these flaws, DOWNTON ABBEY remains one of the most enjoyable, satisfying shows on television.
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