The Shadow Box

Michael Cristofer's Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, about three patients and their respective loved ones living and being interviewed on the camp-like grounds of a hospital, already seemed dated by 1980. James Broderick is a family man whose wife Valerie Harper is in denial about her husband's illness; Christopher Plummer is a gay man whose limited time with his lover is interrupted by Joanne Woodward, his high-on-life ex-wife; and Sylvia Sidney is an elderly woman going senile who takes her frustrations out on spinster daughter Melinda Dillon. Cristofer's teleplay is rather agonizing--when he's not filling his characters' mouths with false prose, he's being facetious and expository. Nevertheless, there are some good performances here worth-seeing, most especially by a surprisingly touching Harper and a pithy-but-vulnerable Plummer. Three Emmy nominations including: Outstanding Drama Special, Paul Newman for Outstanding Directing in a Special, and Cristofer for Outstanding Writing in a Special. ** from ****

THE SHADOW BOX is a film with some very good actors (Plummer, Woodward)and directed by Paul Newman, about three terminally ill patients who spend their last days in an experimental retreat. Sounds corny? Well, it's not corny, but the biggest problem is that it's all too obvious that this is derived from a play. The actors do their best, but...well, they're just acting and not creating real-life characters. Paul Newman is a very good actor (understatement!), and I think he should stick to that. His direction is very sober, almost clinical and we don't get to care about these characters. And that's a real pity, given the premise. 6/10

Paul Newman's directional central piece (his fourth, after almost eight years of silence) is, by far, the best American film of the decade. Not only for its very controlled, moving, unusual tone and rhythm, nor for the exceptional actors and actresses, but mainly for the treatment of such a theme like this, the easiest to fall into a stupid tear jerker. "The shadow box" is like Naruse Mikio's "Midareru", the definitive proof that a great director (and Paul Newman is one of the best of his time) can make wonders with any argument, even with the most boring ones, the less "important", even if the plot is tedious and the ending predictable. A gem