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Post by Sirenna on Feb 8, 2007 21:14:23 GMT -5
I should be studying but my mind's not on it today. But I did let my procrastinating self watch this episode again and I must say, Liza Minella was an inspired casting choice and not just because she is so identifiable as a stage persona because of her huge capacity to both show and absorb empathy when she acts. She really connects with her audience emotionally with those eyes and that reaching out style she has. She is someone who has suffered for her craft and the stage life she was born into. Just like Amber's character did. But when Liza is not acting, she carries herself as someone who is not a sufferer or a victim but someone who struggled and overcame huge obstacles like broken hips and losing a mother at an early age. The suffering is there but also the brightness of the tunnel's end, the triumph and the grace that comes with the victory of a long and brutal struggle. All that she brought to this role so brilliantly. In the final scene, she looked transformed, not justlike a loving mother but someone to whom anyone watching her character could do nothing but pour their heart out to her and into her character's warm embrace. She really deserves Emmy consideration for what she accomplished with this role.
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Post by Patcat on Feb 9, 2007 9:24:54 GMT -5
I agree Sirenna--I was afraid we might see hysterical acting when Ms. Minnelli was cast, but she gave a subtle, touching performance. Her scenes with Mr. D'Onofrio were excellent. MASQUERADE may be my favorite episode of this season.
Patcat
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Post by DonnaJo on Feb 9, 2007 12:37:24 GMT -5
Agreed, ladies! Ms. Minella is a great talent and it's a shame that she hasn't been able to continue shining in movies due to lifes' troubles. I remember seeing "Cabaret" when it first came out in theatres as a young girl. Wow - what she did with that role. I would imagine that Vincent was thrilled and perhaps even a little humbled to be acting with her.
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Post by Techguy on Feb 9, 2007 13:59:48 GMT -5
I agree, Liza Minnelli's poignant and subtle performance as the grieving mother Beth is the highlight of this episode. In retrospect, I now consider this one my favorite Goren/Eames episode of Season 6 so far, even ahead of "Albatross." Ms. Minnelli's most effective scenes are with Vincent D'Onofrio and in the finale at Amberleigh's crypt. I have no doubt the experience was enjoyable for both actors, and I hope she gets a well deserved guest star Emmy for her performance. Have the Emmy nominees been announced yet?
BTW, Gina Gionfriddo's contribution as writer of "Masquerade" somewhat cancels out the bone I want to pick with her for "Country Crossover."
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Post by hannah on Feb 10, 2007 23:20:19 GMT -5
I thought Liza Minnelli was great and I am so pleased that Beth did not end up being the killer. I was worried about that.!! Patsy Ramsey was respected. I also felt that this show reminded me of the murder of Martha Moxley. Years later, a cop (Mark Furhman) reopens the case and discovers that a boy in the neighborhood with a drug problem was the murderer. I liked how the story, "ripped from the headlines" which was about a crime of today, that led back to a crime of yesterday. www.marthamoxley.com/reviews/jbatten.htmwww.marthamoxley.com/I was surprised and disappoined with Eames with her comment about the female rookie cop, making it harder on all females entering into the academy. That women were too emotional. No, Alex didnt feel that women are are to emotional. Honestly (sadly),lots of people in general feel that way and because of the rookie, its proofing their point. Or at least they think so. For example; a black person robs a bank. I've seen many times whenever a black person does this people will act very racist and say its cause he's black and black people are always breaking laws. But if a white person does the same thing... nobody really cares. Its sad and its called a double standard.
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Post by DonnaJo on Feb 11, 2007 11:22:30 GMT -5
A side note,
I really like the actress who played the "female rookie screw-up." I know she was the bad sister in the ep with the photographer, but she had a recurring role in Homocide, at least during Season 6. She usually played the cop at the scene filling in the detectives. She performed this role during the Subway ep with VDO. Guess they met at that time.
Seems like there are about 30 or so actors residing in NYC that flip between the different cop shows filming there. Like this big extended family that know each other. Interesting to observe as a viewer.
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Post by Sirenna on Feb 26, 2007 20:40:30 GMT -5
I've always thought this episode was more about stunted growth or frozen potential than it was about people wearing masks or pretending to be different than what they were. It was more like a dvd loop forever forced to rewind the same 12 hours over and over again. Everyone, whether they wanted to or not, seemed to be stuck reliving the evening that led up to Amberleigh's murder.
The LO;ci titles are always three or four multi-layered. At first the episode seems to be about criminals disguised as John and Jane Doe, living suburban lives, within the midst of the innocent; bad guys wearing masks to hide who they are. But Lo:ci titles are so deliberately deceptive, multi-layered and confusing. I love them!
So on second and third thought I don't think any of the characters were hiding behind masks. Not the mother, she just seemed to want to relive her days as a hoofer, a young talented ingenue until her knees gave out. She was for ever reliving the most promising time of her life.
Not the son. His was the struggle of the titans to understand his part in causing Amberleighs death. He hid himself and his culpability for so long until he realized his only path to freedom was to acknowledge the truth and to seek forgiveness for his part in Amberleigh's death by outing his culpability to her mother; by telling her who he was which was how responsible he was for her daughter's murder and by hoping for her forgiveness for what he did. He got and deserved the blessing of her generosity of spirit. It was one of the most touching scenes of the whole series.
Certainly the child molester was not covert. He never tried to hide who he was. He confessed his desire which was his culpability not now, ironically being innocent with respect to Amberliegh's, but his sinsiter focus pervaded every other child molestation case. He confessed! He never tried to mask or hide who he was.
The episode was entitled "Masquerade" not masks. When I think of the title I think of Sansens' Romeo and Juliet Masquerade Ball when the two enemy families meet for the first time foreshadowing the death of their bright young children. Forced to dance the same sinister dance over and over again, like a loop in a dvd that is stuck replay the same scenes over and over again in their celebration as in this episode there was no growth, no hope unless someone like Goren steps in and breaks the cycle.
This wasn't episode about people hiding who they are but about people forced until Goren and Eames come along, to relive a tragedy over and over again, without relief.
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Post by DonnaJo on Mar 8, 2007 17:33:08 GMT -5
Just caught this again on NBC. . The inital scene where Goren & Beth are sitting at the dining room table. She is holding his hand, but it is obscured from view by the wine bottle. Looks to me to be on purpose.
I remember seeing screen clips where this hand holding is in plain sight. I also remember reading negative reactions from posters on other boards concerning those particular clips.
To me, the original scene would have been sweet. Showing how kind & empathetic Goren is. I wouldn't have taken it as Beth hitting on him. Or that they hit the bedroom after dessert.
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Post by Patcat on Mar 8, 2007 22:40:17 GMT -5
The whole interaction between Goren and Beth is initially creepy--she does seem to be stalking him. But as the dinner goes on, I think her response to him is one of gratitude for his attention to her and willingness to listen to her confession. Goren is initially very uncomfortable--he recognizes the predatory nature of her interest in him--but I think he then becomes very sympathetic to her. He's obviously there to get information from her--his offer to email her the title of the book is meant to discover if she uses email, but I think there's also a desire to help. There's some marvelous, subtle acting going on in that scene between Ms. Minnelli and Mr. D'Onofrio.
Patcat
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meggyd
Silver Shield Investigator
Posts: 112
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Post by meggyd on Mar 9, 2007 0:43:33 GMT -5
When I saw this section of the show, having read about it prior to watching it by reading this board, I was still struck by the fact that underneath the creepyness of Beth's desperate latching on to Goren was her desperation to be around someone who believed her. Like the man who falsely admitted to the crime at the beginning of the episode wants to speak with him "Where's Bobby? He believes me". Beth has the same reaction about being listened to and taken seriously. Bobby always manages to give the impression that he believes, and understands, and this is such a lure to those who feel misunderstood or ignored.
I was really surprised at the casting of Liza Minelli when I heard about it, despite having seen her earlier work such as Caberet and being impressed by it, because I hadn't seen her do much in the last ten years or so and the only things I'd heard about her was about the bizarre fallout from her marriage. I was very impressed with her performance, though, in a role which could easily have become histrionic or cheesy, I thought she was impressive and subtle. Very, very scary eyebrows though!
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Post by sarahlee on Mar 12, 2007 18:14:31 GMT -5
Yes, janet--that was a seduction scene with many layers...Goren saw Beth's flirtation for what it really was, a gasp for communication. Goren had enough sympathy and respect for her to continue the dance, and gently turn it to what she needed all along, someone to listen.
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Post by tjara on Mar 2, 2009 16:01:56 GMT -5
And there I go again *g* Since last week was the week of "I just didn't get this" - I did not understand that ep on first viewing. I did ok the second time, but I've seen it at least another time since then and parts of it even more often until I even got details (like the info where Amberleigh's dad is, because I always wondered about it but never catched the comment on it) Anyway - now that I've seen it a couple of times and "studied" it (thanks to this board, these threads here always give hints on what to look for) - I have to say I really like it. Didn't mind the Halloween decoration at MCJ or the home videos. I really enjoyed Goren's dance with Fife and boy, that actor is creepy, but in a strange way, very believeable... I disagree with those that said Goren did not do his job on the plane. He did, he was questioning him all the time, trying to win his trust. Ross may have been upset with him, because he didn't progress faster, but Goren did is job. I especially liked that they send in Eames when he asks for Bobby. YEAH, go girl. And wardrobe department please notice: Eames looks nice in bright/light colors. They don't make her look pale, she's beautiful... All in all, Goren seemed to do just fine in this episode. I loved how he played Fife, I love how he "played" Beth. He instantly noticed that she was hungering for attention, that was part of why she was a stage mom, and Goren provided her with attention to get his case solved. I really enjoyed that... I wonder though where the hand-holding screen shot came from, because their's no hand-holding in that scene. Of course, Eames *flight* when she realized Beth only wanted to see Bobby, again *you go girl* and I thought the look he threw her was just priceless! "Call me when you need a ride!" I have no trouble with the Goren-Ross interaction, yes, they fight a lot, but as someone esle pointed out - Ross wants to hear about results. And I find that even believable, because they aren't the only detectives he is supervising. Also, he's a no-nonsense guy, at least in his work. And I give him lots of credit for questioning his detectives in privacy and standing up for them in public. I didn't catch the coke until someone metioned it, however I'm not sure whether Ross wanted to cut Goren off, or whether Goren let himself be distracted. I hadn't pegged who the murderer was, I rarely do. But that guy was one of those despiseable villians, causing grief to so many people around him. And Bill Iriwin did a fantastic job at protraying the villian - there was so much emotion on his face... and congrats to the casting department - he and his son were perfectly cast, they have enough common features to pass as father and son. I also think that Beth and Jamie will form a bond, because they both have voids in their life that need to be filled. At first, I thought Beth was very, very creepy. But now that I've seen her a couple of times, I like her, and I feel sorry for her. She definitely has this attention problem, and in a way that ruined her life. That's what made her push Amberleigh into acting even when she didn't want to, causing the fight and why Amberleigh met Jamie late at night. That's also what made her call her neighbours when the police arrived/there was the call for ransom, and so the police thought it was a prank and the investigation was botched. That's how Nate can cover up everything all these years, because she responds to his attention. And then, because Bobby is able to give her attention the case gets solved... I think Masquerade means Nate in that episode, but there probably could be others, too. And I love the new Goren-quirk called "mouth twisting". He does it althrough that ep when he's in thinking mode or he's noticing something is not right. I now he also does it in Albatross - and I'll be on the lookout for more. I also didn't think that VDO looks so bad in that ep. I think he generally does look better in darker suits, preferably blue, but that's just my taste. But he had suit & tie althroughout that ep, and I didn't think the hair was bad. The hair was a little longer that season (which I prefer), but VDO really has those kinda subborn curls, so no matter how they style him, he won't look "all clean" at that length. He also didn't look that tired to me... Group aria's seem to be the deal that season, but that aria played out quite well. I like how Beth repelled from Nate when she realized what was going on and I like how Eames stood next to her, very protective. I wonder how much Goren told Beth when he asked if Jamie could meet her. To finish off (I'm sorry for the crappy quality, we don't have a HDTV, so I make no effort to keep the eps in the best possible quality. Also I like to put 3-4 on a DVD, so I tone down the quality a bit. For me, it's good enough to watch the eps. I'm still hoping they'll one day release all Seasons on DVD, so then I can have them in good quality...) Oh, and *click to enlarge* No tie clip? I just couldn't resist - he's just like *HELP*
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Post by Patcat on Mar 3, 2009 9:17:50 GMT -5
Tjara--I gather you liked this episode. I did too, and I find it's one I like more the more I think about it. This episode is obviously based on an infamous case here in the US, and I was afraid it would be terribly exploitive. I should've trusted the LOCI creative staff more. They nearly always manage to do the "ripped from the headlines" in a sensitive way. The only thing I really didn't like were all the clips of Amberleigh. We get it. She was a cute, even gifted kid. You don't have to show us that over and over.
I also thought the acting was terrific. The young actor who played Jamie (he was a waiter in first season's CRAZY) was very good, and Bill Irwin and Liza Minnelli--not the first two people I'd think of for their roles--were excellent.
Like Tjara, I loved the scene where Goren and Eames go to interview the mother, and the mother so obviously wants only Goren. Now, as it turns out, she really just wants some company, but it's also clear she's initially putting some moves on Goren. There's a school of thought, I think, that Goren is a bit of a ladies' man, but I've always thought he's somewhat shy around women. (Mind you, some women, including me, find that an attractive quality.) I can't quite tell if his nervousness is the result of being without Eames, thinking that the mother is going to try to seduce him, or a combination.
Patcat
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