![]() ![]() Larry’s youngest daughter, Caroline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), to whom he was always especially close, now lives in a city where she practices law. Ginny (Lange) and Ty Smith (Keith Carradine) have no kids but seem quite content in their marriage. Rose (Pfeiffer) and Peter Lewis (Kevin Anderson) have two girls. Two of his daughters live nearby with husbands who are also farmers. Widower Larry Cook (Jason Robards) still farms the flat, fertile spread once plowed by his dad and granddad. The liberties she has taken with Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer-winning novel are suggested in the disclaimer, “Dialogue and certain credits and characters contained in the film were created for the purposes of dramatization.” Those purposes, however, are ones that Jones’ script fails with irritating thoroughness. Of the antipodeans in charge, Jones was evidently the greater liability. Persuasive regional flavor and sharply rendered rural locutions and details might have given this tale a much-needed air of authenticity. Given that “American” is a key part of that formulation, though, it must be wondered why this assignment was handed not only to an Australian director, Jocelyn Moorhouse, but also to a screenwriter from Down Under, frequent Jane Campion collaborator Laura Jones. Films like this that fail are always a shame since Hollywood allots so little screen space to ordinary American families struggling with recognizable dilemmas. ![]()
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