Unhealed Wound – Unhealed Wound

The Kite Runner– Broadway Version

Written by Diana Paul on October 4, 2022. Posted in Theater: plays and musicals, Unhealed Wound. Leave a Comment

The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini is a deeply moving, sometimes horrific story of two childhood friends–one a servant, the other the privileged son of the master of the house. Taking place in Kabul, Afghanistan during the 1980’s, The Kite Runner tackles the themes of class, ethnic division, and the price of friendship. The wealthy friend must face up to what he witnesses one day and what betrayal he is guilty of. For both boys–now adults–the event rips apart their friendship and their lives. This Broadway version of The Kite Runner features...

“Operation Mincemeat” (2022)–Chopped and Diced

Written by Diana Paul on May 30, 2022. Posted in Unhealed Wound. Leave a Comment

Operation Mincemeat (2021) is based on the true story of a successful British subterfuge against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Released by Netflix on May 11 in time for Memorial Day, Operation Mincemeat retells the unfamiliar story of a pivotal operation by British intelligence to disguise the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily and dupe Hitler into thinking the target battle zone is Greece instead. Thousands of Allied lives could be saved if their mission was accomplished. Ewen Montagu (Colin Firth), a Naval intelligence officer, is in charge of masterminding...

“Dead To Me”: A Balancing Act

Written by Diana Paul on May 15, 2022. Posted in Television reviews, Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment

Guest reviewer: David A. Kennedy, horticulturalist and author of the thriller, RICOCHET Mortality, deceit, redemption – these are bread-and-butter themes for the storyteller. Add a little meat to them bones, and you might have something special. Netflix’s Dead To Me (two seasons with the third coming this fall.) attempts that balancing act, and as a comedy-drama, no less. And, for the most part, it succeeds quite well. In the pilot episode, Jen (Christine Applegate) meets Judy (Linda Cardellini) at a group bereavement meeting. Jen recently lost husband Ted in a hit-and-run...

“Roar”–Hear My Voice

Written by Diana Paul on May 10, 2022. Posted in Unhealed Wound. 1 Comment

Roar is a new Apple mini-series, a show-and-tell of eight feminist vignettes based upon Cecelia Ahern’s 2018 short story anthology. Highlighting the unexpected onslaught of devastating events from family, friends, corporations, and community, Roar attempts to address what women are trying to express about themselves. The opening graphic–a feminist scream of a vulva-suggesting mouth stretching wide inside of a rose–perhaps says it best. Hear my voice! Each of the self-contained episodes begins with the title “The Woman Who…”...

Ozark (Finale)–No Exit

Written by Diana Paul on May 4, 2022. Posted in Unhealed Wound. 3 Comments

This masterful series, breathtaking in all four seasons, has now come to an end. Season 4 Part 2 of Ozark debuted April 29, delivering the conclusion to the Byrde family saga. Ozark is exhausting, brimming with betrayal, murder, money-laundering, and more murder, and brutal family dynamics. What’s the meaning of it all? The viewer sees character arcs over time that always hint that the two parents, Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney), and their children will redeem themselves. After all, they have committed unspeakable...

“The Dressmaker”–Quirky Down-Under Drama

Written by Diana Paul on January 17, 2022. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 2 Comments

Based upon Rosalie Ham’s novel by the same name, The Dressmaker (2015) gives us an opening scene in which 10-year-old Tilly Dunnage is being bullied by classmate Stewart Pettyman, the mayor’s son, and a group of boys in Dungatar, a town in the Australian outback. With little investigation she is sent away by police Sergeant Farrat (Hugo Weaving) for the boy’s murder. Twenty-five years later (1951) Tilly (Kate Winslet) returns to Dungatar after a highly successful career as a couturier working in Paris. Presumably returning to care for...