sentimentalize

As a bright October day unfolds, the contest mingles with an unavoidable sense of inevitability, but not enough for these once-a-week chums to unnecessarily sentimentalize the situation.

The dark romance of boxing movies gets dusted off and sentimentalized anew in the New York-set drama “Day of the Fight,” actor Jack Huston’s writing and directing debut.

The key to making this work — which is to say making us care — is the performance of Groff, who humanizes Frank’s choices without sentimentalizing his arc.

What happens to a created family of friends, which modern culture has sentimentalized with the zeal once reserved for romantic relationships, when marriage and children occur?

To his credit, he refuses to sentimentalize the character.