DESIGNATED MOURNER, THE (director: David Hare; screenwriter:
Wallace Shawn/based on Mr. Shawn's play; cinamatographer: Oliver
Stapleton; editor: George Akers; music: Richard Hartley; cast:
Mike Nichols (Jack), Miranda Richardson (Judy), David de Keyser
(Howard); Runtime: 94; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Donna
Gray/David Hare; First Look Pictures; 1997-UK)  "Shawn's play
never becomes a movie."  Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz  Noted
playwright David Hare ("The Blue Room") directed the play and
this film adaptation of Wallace Shawn's play while it was being
performed on the London stage (the National Theater) with the
same cast. Shawn's play never becomes a movie, unless you can
imagine three people sitting around talking and no overt action
taking place as being a movie. The three character cast of "The
Designated Mourner'' address not each other for the most part,
but the camera. It defiantly remains a piece of theater, almost
bare and minimalist. An abstract literary work that is performed
as political drama. Har