OLEANNA
A film review by Chuck Dowling
Copyright 1996 Chuck Dowling
**1/2 - C:William H. Macy.
The content of a film has never made me angry. I have never seen a film where one of the character's actions were so frustrating that I just wanted to reach into the film and beat them. The story involves a college professor (Macy) who tries to help one of the girls in his class understand what he's teaching. Keep in mind that throughout the film the teacher does absolutely nothing wrong.The student returns later and accuses the professor of sexual harassment. Even though the professor explains to her that he was only helping her to understand, she says it's not his intentions that are the issue, it's how she interprets his actions. That's like if you are driving along and way off in the distance there's a car behind you. You then drive into a ditch because you think the car will catch up with you and crash into you. So, as a result, you sue the driver because you thought he would damage your car, even though the driver never even came remotely close to you.
This female character is clearly insane and if there are people like her who think how she thinks, then society as we know it will surely crumble. The film is well acted by Macy and not at all well acted by the psychotic student. The dialog seems forced, however, and for the first thirty minutes or so, the two characters have a conversation that would take normal people thirty seconds to have. Written and directed by David Mamet.
-- Chuck Dowling
Please visit my movie reviews web site at http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/ You'll be glad you did.
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