31. Cullum's strapping presence gave the original production a backbone, and the cutting clarity of his singing voice held the mawkishness in check. 32. Gary Lennon's screenplay is tough-minded enough to avoid a disease-of-the-week mawkishness that the theme invites. 33. The actor and his director, Michael Warren Powell, try to convey the disease's life-threatening capacity without lapsing into mawkishness . 34. The work's tendency toward mawkishness , always a problem, is compounded ( and intentionally, judging by the syrupy background music ). 35. If " The West Wing " is loaded with realism undercut by mawkishness , " Amy " turns that pattern upside down. 36. He emphasizes that the style of the story must be " admirably satiric, ironic " to avoid any hint of mawkishness or self-pity. 37. Parker handles the chemotherapy scenes with a minimum of mawkishness : " They said he'd lose his appetite during the sessions and he did. 38. But as the cool sarcasm of its opening scenes slides inexorably toward the mawkishness of its denouement, " Dream With the Fishes " loses steam. 39. Although much of the movie's tone was developed as it was rehearsed and shot, Salles knew from the first he could not slide into mawkishness . 40. The nine stories in " Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage " brim with emotion and pathos, but never once deteriorate into mawkishness .
