Another question. Did anyone who had a hand in the production of this film bother to watch the daily rushes? I understand that the book this is based on is quite impressive. "Memoir films" are probably the trickiest to execute, especially when the languid rural South is the locale; Without the potent elements of a Tennessee Williams or a Truman Capote, it can all-too-easily result in a real misfire.
The handling of the story here is far too lyrical and poetic to have any ring of authenticity. It's as if the director's intent was to make the film so poignant you could die from it (was this secretly a Hallmark Hall Of Fame project?) But the period detail is good, whenever it's not laid on too thick.
But sadly, the characters are cardboard, almost "Stepford Wives"-mechanical in their behavior and speech. The pace is, needless to say, fatally slow. And even those physical elements which are easy to devise instead look jarringly artificial and overdone (the too-rhythmic tree movement seen through a window, the life-choking cloud of dust/smoke from a bus, a railroad coach that only rocks when viewed from the outside...and real passenger trains didn't carry a caboose!)
My two-star rating here is in acknowledgment of the film's one stand-out asset, Gena Rowlands, an actress who is so thoroughly watchable in anything she does. She breathes the only life into this production, not an easy task, and she makes the most of what was thankfully the most interesting character.
The handling of the story here is far too lyrical and poetic to have any ring of authenticity. It's as if the director's intent was to make the film so poignant you could die from it (was this secretly a Hallmark Hall Of Fame project?) But the period detail is good, whenever it's not laid on too thick.
But sadly, the characters are cardboard, almost "Stepford Wives"-mechanical in their behavior and speech. The pace is, needless to say, fatally slow. And even those physical elements which are easy to devise instead look jarringly artificial and overdone (the too-rhythmic tree movement seen through a window, the life-choking cloud of dust/smoke from a bus, a railroad coach that only rocks when viewed from the outside...and real passenger trains didn't carry a caboose!)
My two-star rating here is in acknowledgment of the film's one stand-out asset, Gena Rowlands, an actress who is so thoroughly watchable in anything she does. She breathes the only life into this production, not an easy task, and she makes the most of what was thankfully the most interesting character.