When it is a struggle to get past the opening minutes of a film, you know there's trouble ahead. Not a violent person, I wanted to smack both characters. Yes, I realize Mamet's characters can do the machine-gun dialogue, but neither shut up long enough to allow the other to finish a sentence. I wound up disliking both characters intensely, so that it was hard to get into the requisite "us" vs. "them" gender head. Plus, it was unbelievable that a student or professor, not on heavy drugs, could/would act that way toward another in real life. Pity is that Macy is a fantastic actor. Mamet is still a fabulous writer. "Oleanna" is his turkey, however, in my opinion.
