Distributor:
Fox Home Entertainment Certificate: M15+ | 125
minutes Available to buy Director: Pat O'Connor Extras: No
ANYONE
IN IT WE KNOW?
Joaquin
Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Kathy
Baker, Joanna Going
"Alice
is the good daughter, Eleanor's the bad one, and I'm the one that just
sorta gets off the hook." - Pam Abbott
WHAT’S
IT ABOUT THEN?
In
the late 1950's the working
class Holt brothers have their
lives changed for ever when they
get involved with the well to do
Abbott girls.
SO
IS IT ANY GOOD?
A
real nostalgia inducing, small town treat of a drama, the fantastic cast
knowing just how to underplay the drama.
At
the heart of the movie is a feeling by Jacey Holt (Crudup) that the
Abbott family cheated their father out an invention that later made the
Abbott's fortune, he allows this to colour all his thinking and his
involvement with the Abbott girls is never straight, meanwhile Doug Holt
(Phoenix) truly loves youngest sister Pam (Tyler) and it is their
story that actually carries you through and pulls you in.
Crudup is
thoroughly despicable, managing to have his wicked way with all three of
the Abbott girls before the films end, whilst Phoenix proves his
abilities with the understated and shy Doug (Phoenix is definitely one
of the most talented of actors out there at the moment, able to do
brutish intensity or quiet troubled souls equally well).
The
beautiful score by the late Michael Kamen also adds immeasurably to your
enjoyment of the movie, knowing when to soar and when to hold back, of
the five young leads only Joanna Going doesn't really come across,
mainly because her role as Alice is the weakest. I never got to see the
movie on it's original release back in 1997 and the cast weren't at all
well known then but I'm glad I've been able to catch up with it now,
very recommended.
