The opening scene, where the Kellers discover that Helen has lost her sight and hearing, goes frightfully over the top, as Kate snaps her fingers desperately, screams for Arthur (generally referred to as “Captain”), and when he rushes into the room, screams her lines such that they can hardly be understood (“Not an eyelash!”). The miracle has been worked the rest is history.įrom the very beginning, the strengths and weaknesses of The Miracle Worker are readily apparent.
THE MIRACLE WORKER 2019 MANUAL
She only seems to make incremental progress, and only when it seems as if her work will all be undone does Helen make the famous connection of water to the word “water” as spelled with Sullivan’s manual alphabet. Sullivan, who struggles with her own poor eyesight and the demons of her past, finds herself with her hands full.įinally determining that the Kellers’ interference will keep her from making any progress, Sullivan asks to live alone with Helen in a hunting lodge on the family property, where she can apply her methods day and night. Her doting parents, Arthur (Victor Jory) and Kate (Inga Swenson), have had little success reaching through to her, and as she grows older, her lack of discipline (borne of her parents’ sense of pity) and her struggle to perceive the world around her have made her behavior increasingly difficult to control.
The story is one you probably know: in the 1880s, Annie Sullivan (Bancroft), a graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind, is hired to teach young Helen Keller (Duke), who has been blind and deaf since early childhood. It’s still a good film, at the very top of *** for me, but it’s too uneven, too reliant on those two performances to go higher. It might be better than at least one of those films, and the Academy might’ve been swayed by size and expense-it wouldn’t have been the first time.īut maybe, on some level, they could tell that the film as a whole didn’t quite add up, that it was a decent telling of a great story, elevated by its leads but not by much else. Maybe that’s why, despite winning Oscars for Anne Bancroft for Best Actress and Patty Duke for Supporting Actress, and getting nominated for Arthur Penn’s direction and William Gibson’s script (based on his play, which was based on his television play), it was actually passed over for Best Picture in favor of bigger, splashier films like The Music Man, The Longest Day, and Mutiny on the Bounty.
The Miracle Worker is built around two performances so good, and works so well when it focuses on those performances, that you can forget how shaky it is when it doesn’t.
0 kommentar(er)
