CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN
January 2, 2009 on 1:47 pm | In Special Tribute, Obituaries | No CommentsRECREATING THE CELEBRITY OBIT
by Katharine Blossom Lowrie
One long, curly strip of dialogue
Who can forget Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin, the grieving widower in Sleepless in Seattle (1993) as he struggles to find the precise words to describe his late wife to son Jonah (Ross Malinger, shown left with Hanks), who fears his mom is fading from his memory. “She could peel an apple…in one long, curly strip,” Sam finally tells his son, a note of awe in his voice. “The whole apple.”
Obituaries, my stock and trade, rarely make a lasting impression on the living - not in comparison to that “one long, curly strip” of dialogue (thanks to screenwriter Nora Ephron) that resurrects the mother Jonah so longs to remember. Which brings me to a pet peeve: the sameness with which deceased celebrities are paraded past us at year’s end, not to mention the reels of film clips that spool in the midst of every Oscar-type telecast.
Familiarity has bred contempt. And I write this stuff!
Dean of Dirty Words