On P List of Movie Reviews

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Places in the Heart (1984)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 4/18

4/18: I picked up Places in the Heart because it was John Malkovich's first film which resulted in an Oscar nomination for him, and he deserved it.

Everybody else, most especially Danny Glover, is also great. Sally Field is the only one I'm not impressed with despite winning an Oscar. I don't care for her character.

If there's anything I never bought, it's the story. I'm sure it's nice and all, but picking cotton on forty acres in a record time with the help of a blind white man and a poor black man to save the family farm? I don't think so. Plus after all the bad shit that keeps piling up one after another, Sally Field's character finds a way out through them? I don't think so. A black man escapes severe punishment after stealing sliver in the Jim Crow South? I don't think so. He'll be lynched. Then again, why would Moze do that if he knew better?

It's a mistake to cast Amy Madigan and Lindsay Crouse in the same film because they look alike. I can't tell the difference between these two. It's not clear to me what their problems, which take up a significant amount of time, have to do with the main plot. Happily, Ed Harris married Amy Madigan in Waxahachie, Texas, shortly afterwards. They went on to do eight films together.

All in all, Places in the Heart works in spite of Sally Field.

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