Review: Places in the Heart

Set in Depression era Texas, Sally Field plays a mother who is widowed when her lawman husband is accidentally killed by a young drunken black man (De’voreaux White). Struggling to keep a roof over her two kids heads, she ends up taking a couple of boarders; African-American jack-of-all-trades Moses (Danny Glover), and a quiet, blind loner named Mr. Will (John Malkovich). They are faced with tornadoes, financial hardship, and for Moses the added issue of racial hatred from the local Klan. In a subplot we have Field’s sister (Lindsay Crouse), her cheating husband (Ed Harris), and another married couple (Amy Madigan and Terry O’Quinn).

Most people have their favourite Sally Field film or TV show, and for me it’s this 1984 drama from writer-director Robert Benton (“Kramer vs. Kramer”, the underrated Paul Newman movie “Twilight”). I really, really like it. Yeah, had to. It’s a simple story well-told with a terrific cast from top to bottom, including some actors doing their best-ever work alongside Field giving her second Oscar-winning performance. Always an underrated actress (despite the Academy showing her some love from time to time) perhaps due to her iconic but cutesy TV work, Field is an absolute powerhouse here, it’s her movie from start to finish. She might not be the tallest actress out there or have the loudest voice or boldest personality, but I’ll be damned if Field isn’t in her own way a force of nature and tower of strength in this, playing a fiercely determined, stubborn widow struggling to keep her house and family together.

As I said earlier, the entire cast here is really terrific, with Danny Glover and John Malkovich standing out in particular. Of the two, Malkovich comes closest to stealing the film in one of his rare good guy performances. Playing a rather introverted and humourless blind person, he’s not exactly a ray of sunshine however (That said, his character is on hand for the film’s few comedic moments such as when he walks in on Field in the bathtub to rant about his privacy. She immediately covers herself up…to a blind person!). In my view, Malkovich deserves to have two Oscars to his name, but sadly has none. He was nominated here and for “In the Line of Fire” and with all due respect to the late Dr. Haing S. Ngor’s fine performance in “The Killing Fields” and Tommy Lee Jones’ excellent work in “The Fugitive”, I would’ve given him both Oscars. As for Glover, he’s been somewhat uneven in recent years, but he was generally a very dependable presence in the 80s, and does terrific work here.

We also get solid work by Lindsay Crouse and Ed Harris, even though their love triangle subplot (also including the fine Amy Madigan) detracts from the film more than it adds. It doesn’t seem particularly relevant to the film overall, nor does the appearance by veteran character player Bert Remsen as a country singer lip-syncing his way through a version of ‘Cotton-Eye Joe’. WTF is that doing here other than making a potentially great film merely very good? I know I called it a well-told story and indeed the other Oscar it won besides Best Actress was for Benton’s screenplay, but the script could’ve been even better if it were more tightly focussed. Elsewhere, I’m nowhere near a fan of the late Lane Smith (outside of “Lois & Clark” perhaps), but he’s perfectly cast here as a representative of the bank. Look out for another veteran character actor, Jay Patterson doing memorable work as frankly a slimy piece of shit cotton merchant.

A rock-solid film that could’ve been better, but would’ve been so much worse without Sally Field in one of her best-ever roles.

Rating: B+