In this limp Southern period piece a wholesome young belle with the innocence of an angel and the manners of a whore supposedly disrupts the progressive Georgia household of Robert Duvall and Diane Ladd. The qualifier is necessary, because the film collapses into pure schmaltz almost before the end of the opening credits. The clumsy voice-over introduction by John Heard and the flashback (almost on cue) to his halcyon youth give fair warning to what kind of film this will be: safe, calculated, all-too polite, and adapted for the screen by a novelist obviously attached to his own words. The casting is attractive, but no one is given much of a character to work with. The title role gives Laura Dern a vehicle for some overripe histrionics, but despite her promiscuity Rose is simply one saint in a family of saints, and every conflict quickly disappears to allow them all a chance to live happily ever after (Rose is even spared the consequences of her constant, physical 'search for affection' by a convenient inability to bear children). In the end it might just be the perfect diversion for people who thought 'Driving Miss Daisy' too controversial and inflammatory.
Review of Rambling Rose
