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

tom dicillo directs this superficial comedy about superficial people in superficial careers , all searching for deeper meaning .
however , they wo n't find much meaning in the real blonde , and not enough real humor , either .
joe ( matthew modine ) is a struggling actor , or he claims to be one , even though he has no credits under his belt .
his girlfriend , mary ( catherine keener ) has no pretensions about her career : she 's a makeup artist , working for the eccentric fashion photographer blair ( marlo thomas ) and supermodel of the month , sahara ( bridgette wilson ) .
sahara , who has acquired a new age spirituality from repeated viewing of the little mermaid , has an on - again , off - again relationship with joe 's best friend , bob ( maxwell caulfield ) .
however , bob has gotten his biggest break yet : a starring role on a soap opera opposite the beautiful kelly ( daryl hannah ) , who may be that illusive woman he 's always pursued : a real blonde .
there are some moments of good humor in the real blonde , but not enough .
the best stuff is in throwaway details in the background , such as sahara 's perfume ads : " depression -
it 's not just a state of mind " .
but to find humor in the superficiality of models and actors is to shoot fish in a barrel . and ,
unfortunately , the film 's forays outside the realm of comedy are pathetic .
take for example the film 's framing device of an old lady and her dog .
the story serves absolutely no purpose , makes little sense , and is completely tangential to the main plotlines of the movie .
matthew modine and catherine keener have the most sympathetic characters in the film , but they 're stuck in the most boring plotlines .
modine whines and complains and would be completely pathetic if he was matched against someone stronger than elizabeth berkley , who appears as another struggling actor .
keener 's character has a stronger edge , but the insult self - defense class ( taught by denis leary , no less ) she is stuck in makes little sense .
the movie 's running time is under two hours , but it seems like it is well over it .
there 's just not enough humor to speed things along , and not enough meaning to propel any drama .
N

one never quite knows what one is going to get with a mamet film .
his american buffalo is a set - bound piece that has very little plot .
sometimes he will tell a story that really moves .
heist is mamet
doing his most entertaining work .
unlike his the spanish prisoner , there are no lapses in credibility .
heist is probably the best mamet thriller since house of games .
it is the kind of plot with which you are never sure who will double - cross whom , and frequently it is mamet double - crossing the viewer .
watching the film 's team getting around security the viewer is frequently asking himself either " what the heck are they doing ?
"
or " why did n't anybody think of that before ? " appropriately enough heist opens with a very clever jewelry store job .
it is so clever that one wonders if mamet really thinks up all these ideas himself or if he has help from professional magician and con expert ricky jay , now a regular actor in mamet films .
this is a robbery that works like a well - oiled machine .
there is just one problem and it is enough to get joe moore ( played by gene hackman ) filmed on a security camera .
now joe has to get out of the business .
it was coming time anyway .
joe 's team including bobby blane ( delroy lindo ) , fran moor ( rebecca pidgeon ) , and pinky pincus ( ricky jay ) is going to split up and go separate ways .
but crime boss bergman ( danny devito ) is pulling the strings
and he says that joe and his people have to manage one more robbery .
and he has to take along a young kid , the short- fused jimmy silk ( sam rockwell ) .
immediately it is obvious that there is more going on than meets the eye .
much of what distinguishes heist is mamet 's dialog .
remarkably it serves a double purpose .
the robbery team sounds at once very professional and at the same time it has mamet 's special feel for dialog
.
hackman has lines like " everybody needs money .
that 's why they call it money .
"
mamet 's timing is perfect in the direction but terrible in the production .
the plot is coincidentally a lot like the plot of the recent the score , which is , in fact , a very similar story .
both are good films , perhaps for some of the same reasons .
but at least on a high level they are much the same story .
the other problem with the timing of heist is that it involves airport security and clever ways to get around them .
i saw the film at the toronto international film festival on september 12 , 2001 .
that made the subject matter just a little too timely .
my understanding is that the release will be delayed .
my biggest problem with the film is that rebecca pidgeon 's acting at times seems very poor .
it is some kind of mamet trademark i do not understand to have women talk without inflection , as if they are just reading the words for the first time .
it is an irritation and distracts us from what is
otherwise a very good thriller .
it is one i rate an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale .
P

i must admit that i was a tad skeptical of " good will hunting " , based both on the previews and the first fifteen minutes of the film , in which the main character will hunting ( matt damon ) , an mit janitor in his early twenties , is discovered to be an einstein - level closet genius when he solves two extraordinarily difficult math problems overnight .
the only problem is that will is a tough street kid who 's had his share of run - ins with the law , and before long he 's being hauled in for assault after a parking lot fight .
professor lambeau ( stellan skarsgard ) , who had brought up the math problems in his lectures , tracks him down and strikes a deal with the police : will is to be released , provided he works with lambeau on his math research regularly and attends therapy sessions .
this sounds like the formula for mildly charming fluff , but " good will hunting " rises above its fairly mundane premise to deliver a poignant and clever drama .
a conflict gradually emerges between lambeau and will 's therapist sean mcguire ( robin williams ) - lambeau wants to get will to use his brain , while sean wants him to listen to his heart , both of which he has been largely neglecting .
will finds that the former is much easier than the latter , so much so , in fact , that he gets bored with it and grows increasingly resistant to lambeau 's attempts to recruit him into the academic lifestyle .
he also has his share of problems with his girlfriend skylar ( minnie driver ) , an mit student who is moving to california at the end of the school year and would like a reluctant will to come with her .
what makes " good will hunting " work so well , aside from the strong performances ( especially from damon and williams ) , is the depth of characterization and the representation of the conflicts in will 's life .
the script 's sympathies seem to lie more with sean mcguire than with lambeau , but neither of them is presented as completely right or wrong .
lambeau , while he may seem a little cold at times , is still written well enough that we like him as a character even when we 're not sure if we like what he has to say .
and sean , for all his warm - heartedness , has , as lambeau and later will point out , not lived up to his full intellectual potential either ; the therapy sessions turn out to be just as revelatory for sean as they do for will .
will 's reaction to this situation , and the way in which he slowly becomes more receptive to skylar and to sean , is presented in a believable fashion and in a way that forces the audience to consider all the characters ' opinions , rather than setting up an obvious " right " and " wrong " side and beating them over the head with it .
for a film with such an extraordinary character , " good will hunting " presents itself as remarkably ordinary ; it achieves the difficult task of making the next albert einstein into an everyman , a character to whom the audience can easily relate and who must make choices similar to those that almost everyone faces at one time or another .
this film gives us real drama when it so easily could have given us merely melodrama , by having the government kidnap will to use him in covert spy missions or introducing some other equally far - fetched situation .
"
good will hunting
" also has its share of fun humor , such as when will , in an early therapy session , pretends to be hypnotized and smoothly parodies the alien abduction scenarios that have become so well known in popular culture .
and in the one scene in which government agents do in fact appear , will blows them off with a hilariously scathing accusation of human rights violations in africa .
will 's relationship with his friends , most notably chucky ( ben affleck ) , is usually rather amusing , if somewhat crude ( the film has 100 +
uses of the ' f ' word , which was most likely the reason for its r - rating ) , and lends itself well to the development of will 's character .
add all this to the fact that " good will hunting " even manages to pull off an uplifting happy ending without getting excessively sentimental , and you might be wondering why i have n't given this film four stars .
well , for one thing , no matter how well damon and affleck , who wrote the screenplay , and director gus van sant pull it off , the story is still rather contrived and not particularly original .
there are also a few scenes that did feel a bit formulaic , including one that was supposed to be emotional but really just seemed like the obligatory crying scene for any movie involving therapy sessions .
still , " good will hunting " takes its premise a lot farther than i thought it would , and is definitely one of the better personal dramas
i have seen in the last few years , and as of right now it stands as one of the top five on my list of ' 97 films .

P