A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. October Films Director: James Ivory Writer: James Ivory & Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, novel by Kaylie Jones Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Hershey, Jesse Bradford, Leelee Sobiesky, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Virginie Ledoyen
Maybe Tolstoy was not completely correct when he said that all happy families are alike. Take Kaylie Jones's family, for example. Ms. Jones, whose novel is adapted for the screen by the Merchant-Ivory team (co-scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala), speaks of her childhood in Paris where she attended French schools, then returned with her family to the U.S. at the age of fourteen. When you understand that her father, James Jones, wrote "From Here to Eternity" and "The Thin Red Line," you see just how closely she has described her own experiences in a fictionalized autobiography, "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries."
The movie portrays her as the daughter of an American expatriate couple with the one misfortune of being culturally neither here nor there, and yet inhabiting two worlds, the French and the American. Who better to bring to life the strains of class/cultural prejudices than the Merchant-Ivory team, whose masterpiece, an adaptation of E.M. Forster's "Howard's End," illustrates the unwillingness of people of different value systems to connect?
"A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" joins this year's parade of coming-of-age stories ("Slums of Beverly Hills," "Home Before Dark," "The Butcher"), this one told through the eyes of Channe Willis. Channe, played as a 15-year-old by Leelee Sobieski and as a child by Luisa Conlon), is loved by her dad, an expatriate writer by the name of Bill Willis (Kris Kristofferson) and by her energetic and free-spirited mom, Marcella (Barbara Hershey). When the family take in a six- year-old French orphan named Benoit (played as a child by Samuel Gruen and as a teen by Jesse Bradford), only a smidgen of sibling rivalry develops until Benoit and Channe accept and learn to love each other. They attend a bilingual school together, where Benoit has a difficult time fitting in because of a French prejudice against orphans. When Channe herself cannot adjust to school, she is befriended by Francis Forescue (Anthony Roth Costanzo), who has a wonderful, soprano, operatic voice and is himself ostracized because of his sensitive, artistic nature. After the family move to New York (Bill, who has a congenital heart disease, wants to be cared for by American physicians), Channe goes through the usual rites of puberty. Shut out in an American high school like her brother--whom her classmates calls a "Frog"--she throws herself into sexual affairs in an effort to gain kindness while her depressed brother takes to moping at home day and night in front of the TV.
Though the Merchant-Ivory team favor Europe and India as locales for their films, this is not the first work situated largely in the U.S. Having adapted "The Bostonians," and created the trilogy of stories of lonely New Yorkers in "Roseland," they are in their elementj. Here they show the U.S. to be neither the class-tormented setting that defines European cultures nor the home of unfettered democracy. Their films are often berated by American critics for their Masterpiece theater ambiance (as critic Howard Thomson puts it, "prestigious, well furnished, accurate, prettily cast and bland, anonymous, and stealthily interchangeable"). Thomson feels that Ivory "does not seem to ask large questions about his characters' options nor is he inclined to employ robust or dangerous American actors" (he used Paul Newman in the American movie "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge").
The same reproach could be made for "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries"--the 61-year-old Kristofferson is sturdy but hardly burns up the screen while Barbara Hershey does not come near her exquisite performance in "The Portrait of a Lady." Yet the movie succeeds as a heartfelt portrayal of a daughter's enduring love for her dad against the background of France and America during the 60's and 70's, a period dominated by the Vietnam War (which gets scarcely a mention in the film). Kristoffersen's Bill Willis is the sort of father many a kid wishes he had, though some matronly women might be horrified by the liberal attitude he holds toward his daughter's sexuality. It's no wonder that Channe's latest boyfriend is surprised and delighted when dad asks his daughter whether they're sleeping together and, when Channe gives him an honest answer, is told that they might as well sleep together under his roof rather than the back of a car. Bill Willis comes across every so often with strong opinions such as one he holds against the Church. When his housemaid, the Portuguese-born Candida (Dominique Blanc) refuses to marry Mamadou (Macha Meril) because at the age of 40 she's "not ready for marriage," Willis chides the priests for telling "the peasants" that they should wait for pie in the sky when they die. Barbara Hershey's Marcella shows her intrepid side in throwing sand in the face of her young son's French teacher, who customarily locks Benoit into the closet for punishment.
Leelee Sobieski turns in a remarkable performance as the adolescent Channe, a classic presentation of a daughter's unbridled affection for her father--as shown most poignantly by her wish to be with him and not at a major party on New Year's Eve when she hears that he may die within a year. Anthony Roth Costanzo is also noteworthy as a boldly artistic isolate, that rare teenager who is absolutely gaga over opera and is predictably shunned by his French contemporaries for his sensitivity.
Photographer Jean-Marc Fabre throws in a few sharply etched scenes of Paris but does best in his filming the beauty of New York's upscale Long Island communities. More casual than "The Bostonians," more restrained than "The Wild Party" and even more poignant than "Roseland," the trilogy "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries" effectively portrays family members split between two national cultures whose love for one another transcends both their daily dilemmas and their ultimate anguish.
Not Rated. Running time: 120 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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