LONE STAR
A film review by Michael Redman
Copyright 1996 Michael Redman
***1/2 (out of ****)
John Sayles' films remind me of real life: often it's slow, sometimes the important events don't seem dramatic and there are far too many subplots to keep under control. These are, of course, his strengths and also his weaknesses.
In "Lone Star", Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) is investigating the recently uncovered body of long-dead former Sheriff Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson) who may have been murdered by his successor, Sam's father, Sheriff Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey). For most films, this story would be not only center stage, but would also exclude almost everything else.
But that=92s not enough for Sayles. Not one to let advancing the plot get=
in the way of the characters and their interactions, the director gives us the history of over a dozen people in the racially mixed Texas town. We find out that Wade ran the town with an iron hand and was hated by almost everyone especially Buddy and Big Otis...who runs the mostly-black bar in town and who left his family years ago including his young son...who now returns to town as the head of the nearby army base and is having trouble with his own son...who sneaks over to see Big Otis secretly.
And Sam helps out a young boy innocently jailed...whose mother is Sam's high-school sweetheart but was forced not to see him again by her mother...who came into the country as an illegal Mexican immigrant decades ago but now runs a successful restaurant where one of her employees is a boy....who is helping smuggle illegals over the border and=85
Whew! It goes on and on. Everyone has a tale and in the two-and-a-half hour film, we see many of them. Somewhere in between all of this, the main plot of the murder (remember that?) is working towards being resolved.
There are possibly too many things going on even for a movie of this length. The film is a lot of work for the audience. Keeping track of this many people and all of their history is difficult with friends you=92ve known for years, much less with characters you were just introduced to two hours before. =
By the time the movie is over, there=92s a certain amount of confusion about some people and events. Hours or days later, after your mind has had a chance to sort some of these things out, you=92ll have revelations.= =
There=92s too much to take in all at one time; again, much like real life= =2E
The main themes are how history affects the living and the relationship between parents and children. The issues are complex and very little is tied up with a nice neat bow by the film's end. I would have been disappointed otherwise.
[This review appeared in the 11/21/96 "Bloomington Voice", Bloomington, Indiana. Michael Redman can be reached at mredman@bvoice.com]
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