Paraphrase Practice

Lincoln Movie Review: The New York Times, A President Engaged in a Great Civil War

     "Lincoln's wife, Mary - he calls her Molly, and she is played with just the right tinge of hysteria by Sally Field - is still grieving the loss of another son, Willie, from illness during the first year of the war, and her emotional instability is a constant worry to her husband. These private troubles combine with the strains of a wartime presidency to produce a portrait that is intimate but also decorous, drawn with extraordinary sensitivity and insight and focused, above all, on Lincoln's character as a politician. 

     This is, in other words, less a biopic than a political thriller, a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy."

My Paraphrase of this Selected Passage:

     In the movie, Lincoln is continually concerned about his "hysterical" and "emotionally unstable" wife Mary, performed by actress Sally Field. Field is spot on with her representation of Mary and her reaction to the horrendous loss of her son Willie during the Civil War's inaugural year. Lincoln is shown balancing this personal home-life struggle with the stressful demands of being president, all while leading the nation through a bitter civil war. His portrayal in this film is extremely detailed and vivid, giving and inside glance at how Lincoln acted as a political leader during his presidency. This very personal look into Lincoln's life forces the film to be viewed primarily as a "political thriller" rather than a biography on his life, as there is too much focus on morality for it to be a completely non-fiction movie.