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With James L. Brooks, we are in the land of characters who trouble us, astonish us, make us wonder. They seem fully formed and full of contradictions. William Hurt seems genuinely troubled by his lack of journalism instincts, but also innately understands how to engage people and uses this to his benefit. They are eccentrics. Perhaps Spanglish and How Do You Know push this conception of character further (the latter is a constant self-interrogation and reinvention), but in Broadcast News we find something like that Renoir/McCarey ideal - a perfect balance between the characters and their world, the inner worlds expressed through their professional lives and interactions. If I prefer the wildness of a How Do You Know it is just a matter of taste, it is a little more fragile and quivering (pace Ropert), almost nervous. Here Brooks seem fully in control, achieving all his desired effects, all the detail of his world. It's almost too direct. Who knows.
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