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Best Friends. Bitter Rivals. Sisters. |
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Verona Love Screens Film Festival 1999
Won, Silver Rose Best Actress |
| BASED ON: "A Thousand Acres" by Jane Smiley |
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RELEASED: USA - 19
September 1997 |
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Best Friends. Bitter Rivals. Sisters. |
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Verona Love Screens Film Festival 1999
Won, Silver Rose Best Actress |
| BASED ON: "A Thousand Acres" by Jane Smiley |
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RELEASED: USA - 19
September 1997 |
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RUN TIME: 105 Minutes |
AKA: A Thousand Acres
- Denmark |
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FILMING LOCATIONS: Illinois, USA
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| DIRECTOR: Jocelyn Moorhouse | WRITER: Laura Jones |
| PRODUCER: Marc Abraham, Lynn Arost, Armyan Bermstein, Thomas A. Bliss, Steve Golin, Kate Guinzburg, Michelle Phiffer, Diane Porkony, Sigurjon Sighvatsson | CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tak Fujimoto |
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Cast - in
credits order |
Production
Companies |
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MUSIC:
Main Title |
ADDTIONAL MUSIC IN THE MOVIE: Harleys & Horses - Ron Keel Steel Guitars - Ron Keel Stabroek Woman - William Topley Crazy - The Ramblers Fear Of Loss - God's Children The Ring - William Topley Drink Called Love - William Topley Just Keep On Holdin' On - Pastiche
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SUMMARY:The seeds of destruction are sown when
indomitable patriarch, Larry Cook (Jason Robards), impulsively decides to
distribute his fertile farm spanning 1,000 acres among his three daughters,
Ginny (Jessica Lange), Rose (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Caroline (Jennifer Jason
Leigh). The apportioned land soon begins to divide the family – long guarded
secrets, unspoken rivalries and denied desires buried just beneath the surface
of their respective lives, are unwillingly unearthed, with profound catastrophic
and ultimately liberating repercussions.
REVIEWS
| September 19, 1997, Friday
WEEKEND DESK FILM REVIEW; King Lear (Just Call Him Larry) In Iowa By JANET MASLIN Shakespeare doesn't play in Peoria, at least not in the screen adaptation of ''A Thousand Acres'' by Jane Smiley. Or even in Iowa, which is no closer to home for ''King Lear.'' That was the underlying inspiration for Ms. Smiley's literary experiment. (A sign of these not-so-literary times: the front cover of the mass-market paperback edition trumpets ''the New York Times best seller,'' ''more than one million copies sold'' and, of course, ''soon to be a major motion picture.'' Only on its back cover is ''A Thousand Acres'' identified as ''winner of the Pulitzer Prize.'') The novel's fusion of literary experiment and homespun tone becomes far more earthbound here, despite game talk of hogs, tractors and wheatgrass from the film's otherwise glamorous stars. Though Michelle Pfeiffer delivers impressively cold fury as the story's version of Regan (now an embittered breast cancer patient called Rose), and Jessica Lange works hard to breathe life into its Goneril (called Ginny), the film remains stilted and unconvincing. Problems with ''A Thousand Acres'' would be apparent even without the well-publicized news that the film, almost fittingly, saw an initially viable collaboration end in acrimony. Re-edited without the help of the director, Jocelyn Moorehouse, the story's latter sections are so abrupt and emotionless that they seem to have been freeze-dried. The dialogue is an odd combination of Ginny's pious, leaden narration (''Our father was only a man like any other'') and everyone else's blunt versions of familiar themes. When Lear, now Larry, and played by Jason Robards with a rage that would work in any context, proposes dividing his farm among his three daughters, the reaction is typically as flat as an Iowa cornfield. Ginny: ''It's a good idea, Daddy. It's a great idea!'' Caroline (Jennifer Jason Leigh's brooding version of Cordelia): ''Um -- I don't know.'' With various husbands and boyfriends (Keith Carradine, Kevin Anderson, Colin Firth) who barely register here, and some extremely theatrical assistance from a well-timed thunderstorm, the film plays as a semi-articulate showcase for its sisterly stars. The characters of Ginny and Rose are also dramatically central now, thanks to the talk show subtext that is allowed to give the story an all-too-modern aspect. The post-Shakespearean bugaboo of recovered memory is now important here, as is incest as an explanation of the family's deepest woes. Think obsessive-compulsive Lady Macbeth or Ophelia with an eating disorder, and you have an idea of just how simplistic that seems. Published: 09 - 19 - 1997 , Late Edition - Final , Section E , Column 3 , Page 12 |
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