THE STRAIGHT STORY (Disney) Starring: Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Everett McGill, John Farley, Jennifer Edwards-Hughes, Harry Dean Stanton. Screenplay: John Roach and Mary Sweeney. Producers: Mary Sweeney and Neil Edelstein. Director: David Lynch. MPAA Rating: G (mild profanity) Running Time: 111 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
In most exceptional films, there is a moment early on when you can just tell you're tapped into something special. That moment in THE STRAIGHT STORY comes as Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), a 73-year-old widower with failing eyesight and failing hips, begins the true-story trek at the center of the film. Having recently learned that his estranged brother Lyle has had a stroke, Alvin decides it's time to make amends. He sets out from his home in Laurens, Iowa to Lyle's home in Mt. Zion, Wisconsin on the only transportation at his disposal: a riding lawnmower. As Alvin hits the two-lane highway, director David Lynch slowly pans up from Alvin to the cloud-filled sky above the Iowa fields. He holds that shot for what seems like a full minute, then slowly pans back down... where we see Alvin's puttering rig about 100 yards from where we last saw it.
I think that shot might have been one of the best of the year even if its only purpose had been as a shaggy dog joke. But it's more than that; it's a remarkably efficient tone-setter. Instantly, you know this is going to be a rather unique travelogue. You can begin to appreciate the truly inspired combination of Freddie Francis's cinematography and Angelo Badalamenti's fiddle-and-guitar road music that makes THE STRAIGHT STORY so evocative in its heartland sincerity. And you understand that slow, methodical persistence is central to this story's success -- not just in Alvin's journey, but in Lynch's willingness to ask his audience for some patience as the film unfolds.
If you're busy rubbing your eyes incredulously, wondering if we could possibly be talking about the same David Lynch who made "Twin Peaks," BLUE VELVET and LOST HIGHWAY, let me assure you that we are. We're also talking about the same David Lynch who made THE ELEPHANT MAN, another fact-based story overflowing with compassion and humanity. There may be something about working from real life that keeps Lynch anchored, and it's a style that suits him well. As provocative as his more surreal films have been, they can make it difficult to appreciate what a talented director he is between the cringes and the head-scratching. In THE STRAIGHT STORY, he is more in command of his simple visual storytelling than he has ever been, which is not necessarily saying that THE STRAIGHT STORY is his best film. It's simply obvious, with none of the grotesquerie characteristic of other Lynch films, that he knows exactly what works for any given story.
He also knows that THE STRAIGHT STORY is more than a bunch of pretty pictures of the American midwest. Richard Farnsworth's performance is so low-key and naturalistic that it may not seem there's a lot going on, but Alvin Straight is a superbly crafted character. Senior citizens rarely get the kind of showcase THE STRAIGHT STORY provides, and Farnsworth does beautiful things with Alvin. It's always clear that he's a stubborn man, but it becomes clear that he's also a man trying to make the wisdom of his years mean something. His journey to reconcile with Lyle becomes a chance to show he's learned what matters, and that difficult moments in life can be overcome by one selfless act. If you're unmoved by Lyle's (Harry Dean Stanton) silent realization of what Alvin has done for him, then movies may hold no power to move you.
It's true that Alvin's homespun homilies -- to a teenage runaway he encounters; to young cyclists; to the feuding twins who fix his lawnmower -- do drag THE STRAIGHT STORY down a bit. Farnsworth does a fine job of pulling all possible sanctimony out of those scenes, but the film is still stronger when it's quiet and observant, soaring on the skills of Francis and Badalamenti. There's also a sly sense of humor to THE STRAIGHT STORY, including Lynch's ability to poke fun at himself. In a very early scene, he trains his camera on a front yard, where a heavy-set woman lies tanning herself. It's exactly the kind of scene where Lynch might have dipped into the creatures beneath the green lawn, or found some other bit of suburban horror. In THE STRIAGHT STORY, he just tells a straight story, finding poetry in the simple reliability of a lawnmower's slow, steady journey.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 mow better blues: 9.
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