BLUE SKY
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A drama about the decay of the
nuclear family set in 1962. Jessica Lange and Tommy Lee
Jones star in a fresh and unpredictable film that
concerns one family's domestic problems and national
nuclear policy. This unusual film keeps the audience
guessing where it is going and never talks down to the
audience. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4)
The year is 1962 and Major Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones), a nuclear engineer, is advising the U.S. Army on nuclear testing. Meanwhile his wife Carly (Jessica Lange), a sexually precocious child in the body of an adult woman, is doing everything she can to embarrass him. She sees herself as a Marilyn Monroe type and flirts with reckless abandon. She is the main reason Hank has been reassigned from a pleasant posting in Hawaii to a disagreeable one on an ugly Army base in Alabama. Hank tries to keep a lid on the family problems in public and to keep the two daughters happy, but it is clear their mom needs more care and is more of a child than the children are. Hank has problems at home and with his work. Hank advocates nuclear underground testing when his commanders and the Atomic Energy Commission want to continue atmospheric testing. At first this seems an odd pairing of plots. One plot concerns a family disintegrating because of the wife's childish behavior and her husband's vain attempts to cover for her and to maintain an even keel. The other plot deals with national nuclear policy. And it is well into the film before the viewer has much of an idea where the story could possibly be going with two such diverse strands of plot. Eventually they will come together in a story about, of all things, character.
This was the last film directed by Tony Richardson, who is best known for his 1963 TOM JONES and who died three years ago. It may well also be the last film we will see from the now long defunct Orion Pictures. It is easy to see why this film waited so long for a release given the intelligence of the scripting and the originality of the plot. BLUE SKY was also a little lucky in that like CHINA SYNDROME and MAROONED, the subject matter happened to become considerably more topical after the film's completion than at the time the film was made.
Jessica Lange gets top billing, though her acting shows more than a little of her character in FRANCES. She is fleshy and sensual. But at the same time she is annoyingly like a spoiled child given to tantrums, not unlike the character's idol, Marilyn Monroe. Tommy Lee Jones gives his character just the right blend of military officiousness and occasional tenderness. Powers Boothe, always good, plays Hank's commanding officer who mixes into Hank's personal life as well as his professional life.
Richardson shows a visual sense in some of his more interesting scene segues. He takes us from the paradise of a Hawaiian beach to a nuclear-devastated landscape. His recreation of the early 60s has just about the right look, particularly the army base with its rundown post-war housing. In short his final film is one of his best in years. Lange's and Jones's performances and the originality of the story give this one a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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