PARK CITY, Utah -- Ulysses Jackson, a k a Ulee, is a former Vietnam War hero, but his toughest battles are raising his two granddaughters. Once again, filmmaker Victor Nunez has tapped into the rich vein of family life to forge a story that says much about the resilience of the human spirit.
Featuring a full and flinty performance by Peter Fonda as Ulee, this well-wrought and thoughtful drama should prove a nugget in select-site showings.
Walking stiffly because of the constant pain he endures from his war injury, Ulee keeps pretty much to himself. That's not to say his life is not abuzz with activity: He's a rural Louisiana beekeeper who ekes out a living selling honey. Immersed in the tedium of his honey harvesting, he's fine, but his home front poses much more vexing problems. His son Jimmy is in prison, and his oldest granddaughter (Vanessa Zima) is going through a rebellious phase. Ironically, Ulee seems most in harmony with his preteen granddaughter (Jessia Biel), whose open ways and decency mirror Ulee's own disposition.
As Ulee musters all his arthritic energies toward the critical harvest season, he is stung with a horrible dilemma. His drug-addicted daughter-in-law (Christine Dunford) has washed up in Orlando and Jimmy implores Ulee to take her in. Worse, she has divulged to Jimmy's former partners-in-crime that he has held out on them, having stashed some robbery money on Ulee's bee farm.
In this spare tale, writer-director Nunez has tapped into the core of his character's strengths and weaknesses.
Neither physically healthy enough to encounter his problem nor psychologically inclined to help wrongdoers, Ulee must muster all his strength and, much tougher, struggle against his own grain to do the right thing -- help his family. It's a solitary and heroic quest.
No superhero and crippled with flaws, Ulee does the best he can. That's the beauty of this story and the pure wonder of its theme -- that man is at his best when struggling for his kin.
Fonda's understated performance as the laconic Ulee is terrific, capturing the fiber and marrow of a man who, although he sells honey, has little sweetness in his own life. Both girls, Biel and Zima, are well-cast as the granddaughters passing through a critical growing phase. J. Kenneth Campbell, as the local lawman, embodies the adage that you catch more flies with honey.
Technical credits are marvelous, from Virgil Mirano's sovereign cinematography to Charles Engstrom's smoothly whirled score.
ULEE'S GOLD
Metromedia Entertainment
Group Orion
Producer-director-screenwriter Victor Nunez
Co-producers Sam Gowan, Peter Saraf
Executive producers Edward Saxon,
John Sloss, Valerie 8
Director of photography
Virgil Mirano
Production designer Pat Garner
Costume designer Marilyn Wall-Asse
Music Charles Engstrom
Casting Judy Courtney
Sound design Pete Winter
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ulee Jackson Peter Fonda
Connie Hope Patricia Richardson
Helen Jackson Christine Dunford
Jimmy Jackson Tom Wood
Casey Jackson Jessia Biel
Penny Jackson Vanessa Zima
Eddie Flowers Steven Flynn
Ferris Dooley Dewley Weber
Running time -- 113 minutes...
Featuring a full and flinty performance by Peter Fonda as Ulee, this well-wrought and thoughtful drama should prove a nugget in select-site showings.
Walking stiffly because of the constant pain he endures from his war injury, Ulee keeps pretty much to himself. That's not to say his life is not abuzz with activity: He's a rural Louisiana beekeeper who ekes out a living selling honey. Immersed in the tedium of his honey harvesting, he's fine, but his home front poses much more vexing problems. His son Jimmy is in prison, and his oldest granddaughter (Vanessa Zima) is going through a rebellious phase. Ironically, Ulee seems most in harmony with his preteen granddaughter (Jessia Biel), whose open ways and decency mirror Ulee's own disposition.
As Ulee musters all his arthritic energies toward the critical harvest season, he is stung with a horrible dilemma. His drug-addicted daughter-in-law (Christine Dunford) has washed up in Orlando and Jimmy implores Ulee to take her in. Worse, she has divulged to Jimmy's former partners-in-crime that he has held out on them, having stashed some robbery money on Ulee's bee farm.
In this spare tale, writer-director Nunez has tapped into the core of his character's strengths and weaknesses.
Neither physically healthy enough to encounter his problem nor psychologically inclined to help wrongdoers, Ulee must muster all his strength and, much tougher, struggle against his own grain to do the right thing -- help his family. It's a solitary and heroic quest.
No superhero and crippled with flaws, Ulee does the best he can. That's the beauty of this story and the pure wonder of its theme -- that man is at his best when struggling for his kin.
Fonda's understated performance as the laconic Ulee is terrific, capturing the fiber and marrow of a man who, although he sells honey, has little sweetness in his own life. Both girls, Biel and Zima, are well-cast as the granddaughters passing through a critical growing phase. J. Kenneth Campbell, as the local lawman, embodies the adage that you catch more flies with honey.
Technical credits are marvelous, from Virgil Mirano's sovereign cinematography to Charles Engstrom's smoothly whirled score.
ULEE'S GOLD
Metromedia Entertainment
Group Orion
Producer-director-screenwriter Victor Nunez
Co-producers Sam Gowan, Peter Saraf
Executive producers Edward Saxon,
John Sloss, Valerie 8
Director of photography
Virgil Mirano
Production designer Pat Garner
Costume designer Marilyn Wall-Asse
Music Charles Engstrom
Casting Judy Courtney
Sound design Pete Winter
Color/stereo
Cast:
Ulee Jackson Peter Fonda
Connie Hope Patricia Richardson
Helen Jackson Christine Dunford
Jimmy Jackson Tom Wood
Casey Jackson Jessia Biel
Penny Jackson Vanessa Zima
Eddie Flowers Steven Flynn
Ferris Dooley Dewley Weber
Running time -- 113 minutes...
- 1/27/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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