In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.

Q: dora ( fernanda montenegro ) sits behind a make - shift desk at rio+s major train station .
she , in her colorful demeanor , offers a service that is unheard of in the states .
she writes letters for the illiterate , who pass through , to try to find lost relatives , find love , or search after lost debts .
she+s
quirky , she+s elderly , she+s caring .
totally trustworthy , right ? not a chance .
once home , she never sends these letters , saving money on postage , and relishing in the drama contained therein with her neighbor irene ( mar ?
lia
p ? ra ) .
one of the letters is sent by a young mother with her nine - year old son , looking for their father .
shortly thereafter , she gets hit by a bus , and the son is orphaned .
days go by , and the boy , named josu ?
, roams around the station , hungry , desperate , and somewhat clueless to his predictament .
through a series of circumstances too precious to elaborate upon , dora somehow takes a responsibility in trying to find josu ?
+ s father .
this means leaving the security of rio , traveling to the outskirts of brazil , where unpaved roads , religious devotees and the poverty - stricken become commonplace .
films like this remind me as to what i enjoy about some foreign films .
it is an opportunity for me to get a fresh breath in another part of the world , so distant from my own .
it does so entertainingly , and so heart - wrenchingly
.
and yet , it+s backdrop is merely that .
the focus is on the minute transformation of dora , of how she learns to love this little kid , without being cloying or sentimental .
the most interesting backdrop is the amount of religious dedication is in the film .
dora being an amoral scam - artist , could care less about the amount of bickering between the candle - lighting of the catholics versus the bumper - sticker mentality of the evangelicals .
but neither side is trivialized .
she even begins to develop an affection for a non - drinking evangelical , who sees the problems with dora , if not initially .
fernanda montenegro surprisingly got an oscar nomination for this very delicate performance , but the true marvel is that of vinicius de oliveira , who plays josu ? .
he , like the discoveries of j ?
r ?
mie renier
( _ la promesse _ ) and giorgio cantarini
( _ life is beautiful _ ) , prove that the true acting discoveries may be outside of the united states .
he is a natural , and never once grating .
send a memo to jonathan taylor thomas .

A: P
****
Q: disaster films have a tendency to be very formulated and very cliched .
to see a disaster film with actual originality , or at least a decent plot twist , would definitely be a welcome surprise .
unfortunately , folks , it 's not likely .
dante 's peak is cliched , and at times corny , but also pretty decent . to be honest , i was n't very interested in seeing this film , and word of mouth , as well as several reviews , did n't make it sound promising .
so
i was pleasantly surprised that to find that this movie was n't bad at all .
it 's pretty run of the mill , but it 's not something i would say is merely " ok " to watch .
in case you do n't know , dante 's peak is about a volcano and the city which lives in it 's shadow , dante 's peak ( who would 've guessed , eh ? ) .
pierce brosnan plays the volcanologist sent to study the volcano and , perhaps more by hunch than actual scientific proof , is determined that the volcano will be arupting in the very near future .
due to the lack of more substantial evidence , nobody warns the small town , and when they finally do , it 's in the middle of the town meeting that the volcano finally blows .
brosnan , all around good guy , will , of course , save the day .
. .
or at least the mayor of dante 's peak ( linda hamilton ) .
naturally the two will become infatuated with one another .
( if you think i just ruined a plot development , you have n't seen very many movies ! )
there 's also the virtually neccessary kids and pet dog to tug at your heart strings .
and of course , the kids or the dog ( at least one or the other ) will do something heroic . . .
but hey , i do n't want to ruin all the surprises !
if there was a part of you that was hesitating seeing dante 's peak merely because it was rumored to be a waste of time ,
i urge you to watch it and decide for yourself .
it 's not brain food , but it succeeds at what it 's meant to be . . .
an enjoyable , suspenseful movie about the fury mother nature can unleash !

A: P
****
Q: there are times when the success of a particular film depends entirely on one actor 's effort .
often a single performance can turn what might have been a rather mediocre movie into something worthwhile .
when one of these comes along , i usually try to think about how many other people put work into the movie , that there is no way one person could possible carry the entire project on his shoulders .
but sometimes there is simply no other explanation , and such is the case with " the hurricane .
"
this biopic about falsely convicted boxer rubin " hurricane " carter would normally be called " norman jewison 's ' the hurricane , ' " as per the tradition of referring to a film " belonging " to a director .
but though he does decent work , jewison can not claim ownership of " the hurricane , " because there is one reason this film works at all , and his name is denzel washington .
washington plays carter , a boxer who in 1967 was convicted of a late - night shooting in a bar .
jailed for 20 years , he maintained that he had never committed the crimes , but remained in jail after a second trial and countless appeals .
the situation changed when a group of canadians moved to washington and worked on freeing carter .
through the efforts of that group and carter 's lawyers , he was eventually freed when their case was heard in federal court and the judge ruled that rubin carter had been unfairly convicted .
the film details carter 's childhood , which had him in and out of jail because of the efforts of a racist cop ( dan hedaya ) .
when he finally got out of prison for good , carter became a rising star as a middleweight pro boxer , seemingly having his career on track , until the police framed him for multiple homicide .
despite the efforts of political activists and celebrities , he remained imprisoned .
flash forward to 1983 , when lesra ( vicellous reon shannon ) a young african - american boy , living with a group of canadian tutors , reads the book carter wrote while in prison .
the book , entitled " the sixteenth round , " opens young lesra 's eyes to the injustice that was carter 's life , and he vows to help free the incarcerated boxer .
lesra convinces his canadian friends ( deborah unger , liev schreiber , john hannah ) to work with him towards his goal .
"
the hurricane " leans on denzel washington .
he must carry virtually every scene by sheer force of will , and he does so brilliantly
.
it 's probably accurate to say that washington does not embody rubin carter , because he plays a character far stronger and nobler than any real person could hope to be .
it would perhaps be more accurate to say that washington embodies the character of rubin carter -- a fictional personality invented solely for the film .
the actor 's work is masterful ; washington throws himself into every moment , refusing to keep the audience at arm 's length .
we feel everything he feels :
the humiliation of having to return to prison after fighting so hard to make something of his life , the pain of having to order his wife to give up the fight , and the utter despair he feels when coming to the conclusion that all hope is lost .
washington 's is a performance of weight and emotional depth .
he does n't merely play angry , happy , or sad ; he feels it at the deepest level .
his work is masterful , and for half of this film i realized that the scene i was watching would not have been nearly as affecting as it was if it had been in the hands of another actor .
norman jewison directs the film , doing a reasonably good job of pacing and shot selection .
"
the hurricane " moves quickly , with no scene drawn out much further than necessary and the narrative galloping along nicely .
jewison handles his multiple flashbacks well ; the audience is always aware of just what the time and place of each scene is , and nothing is terribly confusing .
his boxing scenes , constructed with clear inspiration from " raging bull , " get inside the action very well , and they are believable as real sports footage .
jewison puts together a particularly nice scene by utilizing a pretty cool trick : carter is sent to solitary confinement for 90 days when he refuses to wear a prison uniform , and jewison , assisted by some wonderful acting from a game washington , shows how carter gradually starts to lose his mind during the constant solitude , and eventually we get three rubin carters arguing with each other in one cell .
jewison 's best achievement in " the hurricane " is succeeding at showing how carter becomes an embittered man during his hard - knock life , and how he is able to break out of that bitterness and learn to trust people again .
sadly , though , the film 's chief failures lie with the screenplay , as with most of the good - but - not - great efforts to round the pike this winter .
there is much to interest a viewer in " the hurricane , " but it seems that every time the film gets a chance to take the most clich ?
d route possible
, it does .
take a look at the supporting characters , for example , who are drawn up as either entirely good or entirely evil .
carter and lesra ( played nicely by shannon , who deserves credit ) are the only real people here ; everyone else is a stereotype .
the canadians are good .
the cops are bad .
the canadians spend most of their time dolefully grinning at each other in their lovey - dovey commune ( and it is a commune , despite the film 's failure to make that clear ) , while every racist cop ( especially dan hedaya 's ) melts in out of the shadows and glowers at every black person that enters the room .
much of the dialogue comes off as rather hokey ( " hate put me in prison .
love 's gon na bust me out . " ) , and the big courtroom climax during which everyone gets to make an impassioned speech could have been lifted from a made - for - tv lifetime special .
it 's too bad .
the cast is game , the director does his job , and the subject matter is interesting , but the script takes the safer , slightly more boring route far too often .
i wanted a real reason for the cop to hold a grudge against carter other than " he 's a racist pig .
"
i wanted more evidence that these canadians are real people with faults and virtues instead of a bunch of saintly crusaders looking for justice .
in short , i wanted to see the film through a less distorted lens .
criticism has been levied against the liberties " the hurricane " takes with the truth of what really happened to carter , and much of it is deserved .
for example , the film gives us a boxing scene showing carter pummeling defending champ joey giardello , only to be screwed by the judges , who ruled giardello the winner .
most accounts of the fight , however , have carter losing fairly .
furthermore , much of carter 's criminal past is conveniently left out of the film , and just why he was convicted again in his second trial is never really explained .
of course , " the hurricane " works mainly as a fable , so digressions from the truth can be excused at least partially , but even dismissing such issues do n't remove one fact : " the hurricane " is a highly flawed film .
only one actor could have made a schmaltzy , predictable picture like this work as well as it does , and it 's a good thing " the hurricane " has that actor .
carter has been quoted as saying , " denzel washington is making me look good , " but he 's not the only one .
washington makes this film look good .
denzel washington 's " the hurricane .
" sounds pretty good to me .

A:
P
****