GRACE OF MY HEART
A film review by Vince Deehan
Copyright 1997 Vince Deehan
Written and Directed by Allison Anders. Cast : Illeana Douglas, John Turturro, Matt Dillon, Eric Stoltz, Bruce Davison, Patsy Kensit and Jennifer Leigh Warren.
I had never seen an Allison Anders film before seeing GRACE OF MY HEART. I was aware that she had an acclaimed film called GAS, FOOD, LODGING which I am now eager to see but my only exposure to her work was her contribution to FOUR ROOMS. Anders herself has said that she is not pleased with her segment of that film and all I'll say is I'm glad that with GRACE OF MY HEART she has laid that travesty to rest and produced a wonderful film. Although it has not been commercially successful in the US, I hope it will find its audience as people spread the word about it.
The film tells the story of Edna Buxton who is an heiress to the Buxton Steel family in Philadelphia. Edna wins a local talent contest which gives her a recording contract which unfortunately fails to come to any fruition. She writes her own songs and intends to record them herself. She is told early in the film that you can be either a singer or a writer , but not both. The age of the singer-songwriter is yet to come. She eventually manages to get her songs recorded, but by other artists, when she hooks up with Joel Millner (John Turturro) who works in a building called the Brill Building in New York. The Brill Building was full of songwriters who turned out many hits during the 60's. Initially Edna is told that her songs will be recorded by male vocal groups but eventually she manages to convince Joel to let a girl group she knows, record one of her songs.
Joel manages to get Edna to agree to change her professional name to Denise Waverley and creates a new , more audience-friendly, working class background for her. Denise's songs become hits and she hooks up with another writer who seems to want to write similar songs to her - romantic songs that use realism and gritty social issues. One of the songs they write is about a 12 year old girl who gets pregnant by her 14 year old boyfriend. Needless to say some of these songs get banned. The rest of the film shows how Denise tries to launch her own solo career and marries a Brian Wilson-type figure, the tortured musical genius Jay Phillips (Matt Dillon) .
We hear many of Denise's songs throughout the film and all of them are wonderful. Illeanna Douglas mimes to the songs but she does it very well and almost acts out the songs as she mouths the words. The best song in the film is "God Give Me Strength" which is the song that Denise tries to launch her solo career with At this point in the film she has joined up with Jay Phillips who gives her great song a wonderfully lush orchestration. In the film, the song fails to become a hit and financially cripples Denise's publisher/manager Joel Millner. To my ears this song is just terrific. It came as no surprise to see that it was written by the legendary Burt Bacharach and the brilliant Elvis Costello. Elvis Costello sings his own version of this song over the end credits and it is just as beautiful as when Illeanna Douglas' character is singing it. At this point it is important to point out that the person responsible for Denise's great singing voice is Kristen Vigard. She has a fantastic voice.
The other song which really stood out was the song which Denise records for her first album. This song is called "A Boat On The Sea" and was written by Larry Klein (who was responsible for the soundtrack) and the great David Baerwald (formerly of David and David. Remember them ?). The singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin also appears very briefly singing a great song called "Between Two Worlds", written by Gerry Goffin, Louise Goffin and David Baerwald. Gerry Goffin was married to Carole King who Denise's character has been said to have been based on.
Illeanna Douglas gives a captivating performance as Denise and carries the audience along with her throughout the film with a warm and very charming performance. John Turturro is as great as ever as the wig wearing music publisher. Eric Stoltz is always a joy to watch on screen and his appearance as a socially conscious songwriter is very enjoyable. Matt Dillon does very well with his portrayal of the paranoid and mentally unstable musical genius , Jay Phillips; his final scenes in the film are very powerful and moving.
The biggest star of the film though, are the terrific songs which were so enjoyable that I can't wait to get my hands on the soundtrack. Allison Anders has created a terrific film which shows the workings of the music business in the 60's and is full of the joy and passions of the people behind the songs.
Review written by Vince Deehan on Friday March 7, 1997. E-mail : vince@deehan.demon.co.uk
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