The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 27, 1989 Page: 12 of 16
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12 FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 1989 THE RICE THRESHER
Geena Davis shines in Accidental Tourist
BY DOUG COLLINS
M
I aeon Leary of The
Accidental Tourist is in a rut. His
face shows the expression of a
stoic pork chop as he labors to
move through life without being
touched by either its pains or
pleasures.
Played by William Hurt, Macon
loses his son when the boy is
shot in the head during an
armed robbery. He loses his
wife Sarah (Kathleen Turner)
when he erects walls between
the world and himself in an
attempt to shut out his pain and
anger at the injustice of his
son's murder.
Macon, a travel writer,
concentrates on developing a
sequel to his first travel book,
"The Accidental Tourist," a
guide detailing the ways
businessmen who don't want to
travel can feel they are in their
own living rooms, or cocoon,
regardless of their exotic and
unwanted foreign destination.
Macon himself lives in his
personal cocoon, traveling alone
to exotic locations, canvassing
them for their most successful
attempt at duplicating American
hamburgers, and frequently
visiting with his eccentric family
in Baltimore.
But he meets a new woman,
Geena Davis' Muriel, who
gradually shows Macon that
events happen, whether or not
they're justified or logical. She
stirs his alphabetized, indexed
KAHN'S CORNER:
Dance Theatre, or Shear Madness?
TONIGHT
•You may notice in this
calendar that not a whole hell of
a lot is happening this week.
That's because I'm recovering
from the stress that I received
from watching the entire
inauguration ceremonies on
ABC. Not only did I watch it from
start to finish, but I also
managed to keep a straight face
the entire time. I didn't chuckle
when I saw Marilyn Quayle's
outfit; I didn't break out a grin
when George and J. Danforth
(Danny-Boy) nearly got blown
over because of their close
proximity to a helicopter; and I
even managed to look serious
when Barbara Walters began
describing the symbolism of
some of the floats in the
parade. I also managed to
watch the entire half-time show
of the Super Bowl without even
flinching. They tell me that $10
million was spent on that
production. Meanwhile, down
the street from the game in
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
Miami, there were riots going on
because of police brutality
against poor, unemployed
blacks. Thank goodness that
now we have a kinder and
gentler nation.
•Rice Dance Theatre presents
"A Question of Balance" tonight
at 8 p.m. in Hamman Hall.
Information and reservations for
this Rice student/faculty
production are available at 527-
4808. (See preview in this
section.)
•Show Boat opens tonight at
the Wortham Theater Center at
7:30 p.m. It will be presented
thirteen more times (including
tomorrow, February 1 and
February 2 at 7:30 p.m.) before
closing up shop on February 12.
Call 227-ARTS for more ticket
information.
•Rumor has it that my editor
is hosting a nasty little soiree
this evening. You don't know the
address? Tough. Figure it out.
TOMORROW
•Mishma, a fan-flipping-tastic
ROIW*
rW'\
Mo co«
If you think getting a job in the real world' sounds dull, think again.
From Amsterdam to Zurich, Moscow to Madrid. PanAm Flight Attendants call the
world their home
If you're at least 20 years old, love to travel and enjoy helping people, this is your
opportunity to land one of the most sought after positions in the Airline Industry.
You must be ready to relocate.-Ability to speak a foreign language is a big plus.
c
Come to Pan Am's
OPEN HOUSE
Double Tree Hotel at Post Oak
2001 Post Oak Blvd, Houston
Tues, Jan 31, 10am-4pm
EXPECT MORE FROM YOUR CAREER
HP
Equal Opportunity Employ*' M/F
lifestyle, and moves him out of
that rut. Macon initially tenses
up and feels that Muriel's life
and taste in clothing run out of
control, and then finds himself
wanting to have part of the
control Muriel possesses,
accepting the situations life
hands her, traveling through life
as more than a self-absorbed
tourist.
Hurt gives a fine performance
as a man who bars himself from
living as if he doesn't care
about the world but eventually
allows himself to be pushed into
feeling again. As Sarah,
Kathleen Turner convinces the
audience she needs support;
none is available from Macon,
and she has reason to leave
him to try and feel alive once
more.
Davis, who formerly appeared
in Tootsie, The Fly and
Beetlejuice, shines as the
eccentric Muriel; she fights all
her setbacks by living them as
intensely as she does her good
times. Davis' always extreme
emotions never seem forced,
and her Muriel never allows the
audience to forget how
conventionally caring and
human she is underneath her
outrageous exterior.
Also, look for fine
performances by Ed Begley, Jr.
(Erlich from St Elsewhere) and
David Ogden Stiers (Charles
Emerson Winchester from
M*A*S*H) as they both play
conventional, yet mentally
deficient, members of Bacon's
wealthy, refined family. Their
calm acceptance of knowing
they will never master reading
maps and directions—though
they still venture to the comer
store on aimless errands which
take them hours and a
surveyor's hoard of maps—
contrasts comically with their
brother Macon's inability to
attempt any task without feeling
in control.
The cast superbly portrays the
characters, giving them
authenticity and refreshingly
large emotional spectrums for
the audience to enjoy. The
movie is based upon Anne
Tyler's engaging novel of the
same name, and readers of her
book will experience the same
desire to follow the comic and
poignant lives of the characters
in the film as intently as they did
in the book.
f
Me and My Girl plays January 31 through February 5 in Jones Hall.
movie directed by Paul
Schrader, shows at 8 p.m. at
the Museum of Fine Arts.
•The Rice Dance Theatre
performs "A Question of
Balance" tonight at 8 p.m. in
Hamman Hall.
UPCOMING
•January 29—Don Giovanni,
one of those foreign films that
critics seem to get aroused by,
shows this evening at 7 p.m. at
the Museum of Fine Arts.
•January 31—Me and My Girl,
the Tony Award-winning musical,
opens this evening at Jones Hall
at 8 p.m.
•February 1—The Rice Design
Alliance presents another one of
its Architects' Fireside Chats
this evening at 7:30 p.m. in the
Farish Gallery in Anderson Hall.
For information and
reservations, call 524-6297.
ONGOING
•Diamonds Are Forever, an
exhibition of sixty works of art
that address the theme of
baseball and its cultural
influence, remains on display
until April 15 (a date when my
Chicago Cubs will already be in
last place) at the Museum of
Fine Arts.
•The theatrical series
"Moliere: His Life and Work"
continues at the Main Street
Theater through March 12. The
production includes two works:
The Cabel of Hypocrites and The
Imaginary Invalid. For ticket
prices and performance times,
call 524-6706 (students receive
a $2 discount).
•An exhibit that focuses on
the African continent is on
exhibit until March 26 at the
Houston Museum of Natural
Science.
•Lanie Robertson's Alfred
StiegUtz Loves O'Keefe, an Alley
Theatre (228-8421) production
of the love story of two of the
most famous artists of our time,
runs through February 18.
• Shear Madness, the longest-
running non-musical play in this
country's history, is continuing
its open-ended run at the newly
renovated Tower Theater on
Westheimer. The play, a murder
mystery/comedy, takes place in
a unisex hair salon here in
Houston, and its script goes
through nightly alterations to
make topical references to
personalities and current
events. Performances run
Tuesday through Sunday, with
matinees on Saturday and
Sunday. For times and ticket
info, call 529-5966.
Cohen
FROM PAGE 10
boy has. As an artistic observer
of human perception, Cohen is
at the top of the American
literary class.
The problems in Say You
Want Me that soon arise are
irritating, because they obscure
the obvious talent that Cohen
has. His detailed touches in the
text are brilliant, but the lack of
development of the characters
beyond the first few chapters is
easily detectable. The reader is
obviously supposed to have
some sympathy for Brendan,
and he is indeed a likeable
enough person, but throughout
the last third of the novel he
begins to wear thin on you. In
this way he reminds me of Anne
Tyler's Macon Leary in The
Accidental Tourist, but where
Tyler's protagonist was
supposed to have an ambivalent
relationship with the audience,
Brendan is surely supposed to
be one we identify with and feel
for. Yet as his relationship with
Maggie reaches its climax,
Brendan's motivations become
unclear. Is it love, or is it his
desire to exert his masculine
superiority over someone who
has more intelligence than he
does (unlike his earlier
relationship with Lila)?
[He] was wiser than I; that,
not for his business skill, was
why I treasured knowing him. I
treasured Lila for her
wisdom...and that was why I
often wished I was talking to
Maggie instead. To Maggie, I
was one of the wiser ones.
He is still the doting, loving
father to Jeff, but his situation is
one that he seems to have
brought on himself, and never
does Cohen allow him any self-
revelation about what he has
done wrong, how he may be at
least partly responsible for the
unfortunate fate that befalls
him.
The last movements of the
novel seem contrived, and the
conclusion is thoroughly
unsatisfying, yet even here
Cohen manages to partially
atone for his sins by creating
one unforgettable image after
another. It is a remarkable piece
of writing, the work of a man
who, like his protagonist, sees
all.
So does Say You Want Me
succeed in the end? For me it
did, but what is memorable isn't
anything that is normally
associated with laudable novels.
Instead, it's the vignettes, the
small quick moments that
remain in my head. In Mr. Bridge
and Mrs. Bridge, Evan S.
Connell managed to write more
than 250 short stories and then
tie them together in two brilliant
works by having sho/j,
sometimes one paragraph,
chapters that eliminate the
difficulty of transitions.
Cohen's book lacks that
cohesiveness, but in this case
the irritating qualities of Say You
Want Me weren't enough to
make me forget the lyrical
writing that manifests itself. In
the future, I hope he enlarges
the scope of his vision, leaving
the detail of his eye in place
while taking more chances on
content.
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McGarrity, Patrick & Sendek, Joel. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 27, 1989, newspaper, January 27, 1989; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245711/m1/12/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.