Weekend Review: HBO's Olive Kitteridge, Revisiting The Affair
To know Olive Kitteridge is not easy. Many would likely argue it's not worth the risk of being exposed to her harsh, judgmental New Englander's scorn. Suffer fools gladly? Not this curmudgeonly math teacher who, when her husband insists she's not depressed, snaps back, "Yes, I am. Happy to have it. Comes with being smart." Prompting her long-suffering son to wonder, "Is that why you're so mean all the time?"And yet, in HBO's oddly moving and melancholy-shrouded two-night adaptation of Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer-winning novel Olive Kitteridge (Sunday-Monday, 9/8c), a remarkable Frances McDormand makes Olive a fascinating, tragicomic study in human stubbornness, contrariness and contradiction....
