Dacha Ado About Nothing — And Everything: 'The Seagull' Soars
A stellar cast, a faithful adaptation, and a director with a rhythmic sense of pacing ensure that this film version of Anton Chekhov's play takes flight.
Michael Mayer's , a fluid and faithful reading of the endlessly remounted stage play by Anton Chekhov, opens and closes with what looks like the same scene. The curtain has just gone down on a final act, and we hear clapping as the camera moves in to focus on leading lady Irina (Annette Bening, in superb command as always), flushed and beaming under the adulation she plainly can't get enough of. Until, that is, someone whispers troubling news in Irina's
