I Tension infamily relations charmingly portrayed infilm
By Julie Naughton
Senior Editor
A family of reserved Italian Catho
lics meets an expansive Lithuanian in
“Once Around, and the combination
is explosive.
The Bellas form a light-knit Ital
ian Catholic family that lives in a
Boston suburb. The parents, Marilyn
(Gena Rowlands) and Joe (Danny
Aiello) and their daughters, Renata
(Holly Hunter) and Jan (Laura San
Giacomo) are happily plodding through
their lives as the film opens. Younger
daughter Jan is about to marry, and
Renata is pressuring her boyfriend
(Griffin Dunne) for a proposal.
When he says no, the stage is set
for Renata’s adventure to begin.
After Jan’s wedding, Renata heads
to Saint. Martin to leam to sell condo
miniums. There she meets and falls
for super-salesman Sam Sharpe (Rich
ard Dreyfuss). He’s the king of condo
sales, a brash, generous, bawdy guy
nearly twice Renata’s age.
Sam is lonely, and so is Renata.
She’s charmed by his constant stream
of off-color jokes and Lithuanian
proverbs. He’s allured by her total
adoration of him. They immediately
fall in love against the backdrop of
spectacular Saint Martin sunsets and
decide to marry soon after.
Sam, who is extremely rich, lav
ishes everything imaginable on Re
nata — the gift-wrapped red Mer
cedes wedding present, the Christian
Dior wedding gown and the beach
front apartment. Eager for a loving
family — his own large, warm Lithu
anian family is dead — he presents
the Bella family with extravagant gifts,
too.
The Bellas are unsure about how
to deal with this overbearing Lithu
anian, and tension begins to eat away
at them.
The classic struggle is seen as the
overly coddled Renata breaks away
from her family and marries Sam.
The family seems to feel that no one
is good e-nou^ for Renata. This leads
“Once Around”
Starring
Holly Hunter,
Richard Dreyfuss
Rated R
Rating: 4
to some spectacular confrontations,
and Renata finally is forced to get a
backbone and tell her self-centered
family that she’s a big girl now.
“He’s trying to buy her,” one Bella
is overheard saying to another at the
wedding. The bitchy comments con
tinue through the wedding. Soon after
the wedding, Renata gets pregnant,
and the bitter remarks intensify.
“This is my adventure,” she screams
at her parents after one battle. They
tell her that Sam is no longer wel
come in their house, and she replies
that if Sam isn’t welcome in their
house, then she and their daughter
aren’t welcome in the house, either.
After a great deal of family stress,
the Bellas finally accept Sam. The
way this is done is nice. Renata sticks
up for her husband and the Bellas
learn to be a little less self-centered.
For his part, Sam tries to become less
offensive to the Bellas.
Unfortunately, the idyllic moments
don’t last. Sam has a heart attack at
his daughter’s christening, and the
tension starts building again as the
Bellas begin to worry about his health.
There are some truly touching
moments here, especially when Aiello
carries an ailing Dreyfuss up the stairs
of the Bella home.
Dreyfuss and Hunter, otherwise
known as the king and queen of nerv
ous tension, have a certain charm in
their roles.
Dreyfuss — looking a lot older
than in recent pictures — is believ
able as the sincere yet obnoxious Sam.
Hunter’s character is typical of her
roles: Renata is hypersensitive, easily
moved to tears, jumpy and uptight.
But Hunter immediately endears her
self to the audience, just as she has
done in other films. The only sore
point of the portrayal is her forced
Boston accent. It just misses being
authentic, and distracts from Hunter’s
gentle portrayal of Renata.
Aiello, perhaps best known for his
Academy Award-nominated role in
Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” is
excellent as Joe. Joe is uncomfortable
as he sees Sam taking over the role
that he’s always held in the family
the expansive speechmaker, the king
of emotion. Aiello convincingly por
trays this feeling.
And San Giacomo, fresh from
acclaimed performances in “sex, lies
and videotape” and “Pretty Woman,”
is charming as Jan.
“Once Around” is playing at the
Cooper Theatre, 54th and O streets.
1 Kronos
Continued from Page 12
Kronos’ performance of Hamza El
Din’s composition, “Escalay (The
Water Wheel)” featured a stirring piece
of Egyptian influences.
Joan Jeanreneaud’s tense cello
provided the dense sound and a cours
ing bass melody, which served as the
rhythm section. Utilizing a discor
dant sound as part of the voice of the
chorus, the sense of stress powered
the piece forward, feeling like an
actual water wheel.
The urgency-building within “Es
calay (The Water Wheel) is purpose
ful. Composer El Din claims “the
message of the piece is that God doesn’t
want the sacrifice of human beings,
but till now it is still happening every
where.”
More evidence of the power of
dissonance was found in Kronos’
performance of Peter Sculthorpe’s
“Jabiru Dreaming.”
Featuring a survey of discordant
hums, each member played the sepa
rate phrases distinctly — coursing
together for one sound.
The sound of the piece was remi
niscent of the string section in Propa
ganda’s dark pop masterpiece, “Dr.
Mabuse” from Kronos’ 1985 debut,
“A Secret Wish.”
“Dreaming” also seemed to fea
ture a thorough study of “new age”
music master Phillip Glass and his
style of layering melodies that other
wise would not go together. This inter
spersing of melodic and discordant
seems an important and powerful
trademark to the power of the Kronos
Quartet.
Sticking to its longtime tradition
of impressive encores, Kronos did
not disappoint Saturday night.
“Tillaboyo,” or “Sunset,” featured
a warm and gentle sound with a bit of
playfulness, sounding almost like a
round of pop-styled music. “Sunset”
was a much simpler piece with an
ambient sound, which gave the feel
ing of taking a walk at sunset.
Kronos’ final offering was a clever
Steve Mackic arrangement of Bo
Diddley’s “Roadrunner.” The twang
and screech of Kronos’ driving pace
was musically perfect and thoroughly
entertaining—just as Bo would have
liked it.
Imagine — a siring quartet play
ing Bo Diddlcy.
What else could you ask for from
an evening from Kronos?
Hanna
Continued from Page 12
“And may I say, Oprah,” Dirk
continued. “I support Operation Des
ert Storm.”
Even more applause.
I was somewhat uncomfortable with
the direction the show was headed.
Still, I assumed the show would head
down a more palatable path.
“Our next guest is Karla Killjoy, a
single mother of seven from Skokie,
111”
Submissive applause from the
audience.
“Hello, Oprah and thank you for
having me on the show,” Karla said.
“My deadbeat husband forced me to
live in a personal hell for nearly 14
years. He was la/.y, fat and rude. He
wouldn’t help care for our children,
and 1 did all of the housework. When
I found out he was having an affair,
that’s where 1 drew the line.”
“Could you tell us how you re
sponded to your husband’s affair?”
Oprah asked.
“1 ran him over with our pickup.”
Tumultuous applause from the
audience.
Iwnai next; upran asKca.
“Well, he wasn’t dead, but he was
close. I threw his broken body into the
back of the truck with all of his be
longings, drove him over to his mis
tress’ house and said ‘Here, you can
have him.’ Then I dumped him on her
porch and threw a fire bomb iri her
window.”
A standing ovation from the crowd.
“And I support Operation Desert
Storm.”
Several hands in the audience began
to bleed as the applause reached a
deafening roar.
The person sitting directly to my
left spoke up.
“Oprah, I’d like to add something,
if I may.”
“Oh, yes,” said Oprah. “The next
person on our panel is not here as a
normal American. She is a psycholo
gist specializing in broad generaliza
tions and self-important psycho
babble. Her book is entitled ‘Women
Who Think They Might Love Too
Much But Are Not Sure and the Men
Who Abandon Them Because of Their
Own Fear of Opening Up and Being
Emotional.’ May I introduce Mimi
Caruthers.”
Conformable applause from the
audience.
“What we’re finding, Oprah, is
that too many American women are
looking in the mirror and not liking
who they see. They need to do some
I self-evaluation and be able to look at
that person in the mirror and say,
‘Hey, I am somebody and I have
something to say. I really like me.’
And what we’re finding, Oprah, is
that when they do that, they’re able to
quit loving their oppressors and start
loving themselves. And that’s impor
tant.”
A few hands went up in the audi
ence.
“Yes, ma’am, you have something
to say,” said Oprah, sticking her mike
in an audience member’s face.
“Yes. I wanted to go back to Dirk
and ask him how he prepared his
parent’s flesh when he ate them,” she
asked.
“It was stir-fry,” Dirk replied suc -
cinctly.
Oprah moved to another audience
member.
“I don’t really have a question. I
just wanted to say that I love this
country and those who don’t should
just move to Russia. Hip-hip-hooray
for the U.S.A.!” he said
The audience nearly killed itself
dapping.
“Before we take more questions,
let’s go to our last normal person, a
college student from Lincoln, Neb.
Welcome, Jim Hanna.”
“Thank you, Oprah,” I said. “What
would you like to know?”
“Let’s start with the obv ious. Have
you ever killed anyone?” she asked.
“Uh ... no Oprah, I haven’t.”
“Oh. Have you ever been unfaith
ful in a relationship?”
“No, I guess 1 haven’t,” 1 said.
“Hmm, ever been to a psycholo
gist?”
Another no.
“Jccz, you’re odd,” Oprah said.
“Have you ever hit a woman, or
molested a child or had plastic sur
gery?”
No, no, no.
The audience stirred uncomforta
bly.
“You’re not normal at all. Isn’t
there anything you can tell us to con
vince us you’re normal?”
“Well, I’m a college student with a
stable social life, no history of drug or
alcohol abuse, who gets along pretty
<*.*■4* Monday - Friday
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Saturday
2:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
In the Reunion
Monday’s and Friday's
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well with every member of my fam
ily. What can I say?”
The audience stared in dumb si
lence.
“And may I add, I don’t support
Operation Desert Storm.”
A cry went up from the crowd.
Oprah signaled to security guards who
rushed to the stage and yanked me out
of the studio. As I was being dragged
out, 1 could hear Mimi Caruthers.
“What I think we have here is a
person who obviously didn’t get the
iovc he needed as a child and is look
ing for attention through obnoxious
public displays of non-conformity”
The guards threw me out the front
door of the studio. Then I, in all of my
weirdness, caught a taxi to O’Hare
Airport and I flew home to continue
my life as a freak.
Hanna is a senior theater arts major and
a Daily Nebraskan arts and entertainment
senior reporter and columnist.
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