Searching for the connections
Crazy In Alabama A film review by Michael Redman Copyright 1999 by Michael Redman
** (out of ****)
The human mind spends a lot of time trying to make sense of things. We devote an amazing amount of energy sifting through chaos, trying to find the patterns. It's why optical illusions work. It's why everyone has their own ideas of how life works.
The idea that there is no pattern, no "why," is so alien that we reject it. We need order and connections, even if they are illusions.
Attempting to find the connections between the two stories in "Crazy In Alabama" is not only a fool's errand, but it ruins what might have otherwise been an acceptable little film.
Lucille (Melanie Griffith) is fed up with her cruel controlling husband. He beats her. He's kept her pregnant for years by punching holes in her diaphragm. She's so tired of him that when he tells her she can't go to Hollywood to pursue her dream of stardom, she poisons him and cuts off his head with her electric carving knife.
She stuffs his body in the family freezer, drops off her seven young kids at mama's house and hits the road for sunny California with poor hubby's head in a Tupperware container by her side.
Back at mama's place, the influx of youngsters forces her to move Peejoe (Lucas Black) and his brother, orphaned grandsons she has been raising, to their uncle Dove's (David Morse).
Living in the small town of Industry, Peejoe soon comes face-to-face with the racial unrest that was Alabama in 1965. When Sheriff Doggett (Meat Loaf Aday) kills a black teen trying to swim in a public pool, Peejoe becomes radicalized to the plight of Negroes.
So there you have it. Zany Lucille is driving to the big city on a one-woman "Thelma And Louise" trek to strike it big and 13-year-old Peejoe is immersed in the civil rights movement. What's the connection?
Hell if I know.
Sure there are some thematic similarities. Women and Blacks have been kept down for centuries and both are beginning to awaken. But Lucille's half of the film is played for laughs and Peejoe's is deadly serious. Although the film was adapted from Mark Childress' novel, it doesn't work as one story. It feels like the studio had two completely different tales and stapled the scripts together.
The frustration is that either could have been a satisfying film. Lucille's search for self identity and fame has some hilarious moments. Peejoe coming of age in the turbulent sixties is often poignant.
Either story could have worked. Not both.
It's too bad. Watching the film, trying to fit the two together, I kept making excuses because there are so many good scenes. I kept hoping that it would all fall together in the end. Ultimately it doesn't.
Actor Antonio Banderas' directoral debut takes a few more wrong steps than just the juxtaposition of the mis-matched plots. Both have some problems. The decapitated head talking to Lucille is neither funny nor entertaining. The depiction of the plight of oppressed people told through white eyes is an overworked error.
Griffith has played this part a number of times before and often succeeds, especially in her "I'm so sexy you can't stand it" scenes. Unfortunately she occasionally appears disconnected from her character.
Black is grand as the homegrown southern kid. His role here rivals his performance as the trusting boy in "Slingblade". Kids who come across as real children on the screen are rare. He does it to perfection.
A few of the supporting characters are strong also. Morse turns in a good understated job as the liberal mortician. Meat Loaf's redneck sheriff is fun to watch, cliched as it is. Rod Steiger show up as a judge at the courtroom finale. He almost seems like he's in a different film than the rest of the cast, but adds a touch of energy.
Wait until this comes out on video. Then do your own editing, putting the scenes from each story together and watch it that way. You'll have two acceptable short films rather than one longer one that just doesn't work.
(Michael Redman has written this column for over 24 years...or is it 25? Send your chaos vs. order theories to Redman@indepen.com.)
[This appeared in the 10/28 "Bloomington Independent", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be contacted at Redman@indepen.com] -- mailto:redman@indepen.com This week's film review: http://www.indepen.com/ Film reviews archive: http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Michael%20Redman This week's Y2K article: http://www.indepen.com/ Y2K archives: http://www.indepen.com/y2k.html
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