For even the most repellent characters in these films are defined as individuals who are partly shaped by Italian neighborhoods and backgrounds, partly shaped by their own peculiar psychologies.

In fact, the new hero, Frank Gale, must surely rank as one of the most repellent characters to come along in recent literature, right up there alongside Patrick Bateman, the deranged narrator of Bret Easton Ellis's "American Psycho."

Adam Rapp, whose play "Stone Cold Dead Serious" attracted considerable attention last year, puts two repellent characters in a box and has them do some exceedingly repellent things in "Blackbird."

Bahr has a gift for creating mentally damaged and physically repellent characters who come alive in disturbing and finally endearing ways.

Girodet's strangeness and fairly repellent character make him, if not likable, then fascinating to contemplate and heroic in his immoderation.

It's sometimes brilliant, and Girodet's strangeness and fairly repellent character make him at least fascinating to contemplate and heroic in his immoderation.

Some repellent character, I imagine.

Mark Lamos's direction plays with paradox, starting of course with the obvious theme of evil's seductiveness and the assumption that one is drawn to a repellent character.

It was Mo'Nique's acting, though, not cosmetic changes that brought the repellent character to life; she earned a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her fearsome portrayal of one of the vilest characters in recent Hollywood history.

Putting this and other arresting statements in the mouth of such a repellent character is not the same thing as endorsing them, of course, but as the silhouettes of these two speakers are filled in, "Guardians" does tend to imply dubious equations between sexual and moral behavior.