Big Stone Gap (2014)

If you can accept that Virginia coal mining town can have a miner who looks like Patrick Wilson and a pharmacy owner who looks like Ashley Judd then you might enjoy this movie. Whoopi Goldberg is totally out of place here.But unrealistic looks aside, the story is quite painful. He is too young for her and she looks unhappy. I've always been a fan of Ashley Judd and praise her for not having plastic surgery to look younger. She is still very slim but there is a frown on her face and a bit of puffiness that is a little distressing to see on someone who was so beautiful. Maybe a romantic role wasn't right for her. Patrick Wilson looks too healthy and wholesome for the role - long sideburns don't a hillbilly make.The touching gesture of selling his truck to bring over her family kind of rings fake. It would have been better if she just took a trip to Italy.Don't bother with this one.

We found this movie on Netflix streaming. It is a small movie and comes off as a "made for TV" production but actually had a short theatrical run. Interestingly the small town of Big Stone Gap is real, in the western part of Virginia just a few miles north of the Tennessee border, and the writer/director is from Big Stone Gap. Presumably some of the actors and many of the extras were residents of the community.It is set in 1978 and the two featured character are 40, Patrick Wilson (actually 40 during filming) as coal miner Jack MacChesney and Ashley Judd (actually 45 during filming) as Ave Maria Mulligan. Jack and Ave each are somewhat seeing other people but it is clear from the start that he has an eye for her. But for some reason she seems unapproachable.Ave runs the family drug store in the small town of a few thousand and knows just about everyone, and is one of the few "serious" characters in this movie. She is a good soul and a kind person.The story here is nice and ends well. But my biggest issue with the movie is how almost all the characters are played as caricatures. They say things or do things that aren't very authentic and most seem to be buffoons. There is a good enough core story here that they didn't need to go overboard with the silliness and slapstick.SPOILERS: Ave's mother dies and when the lawyer, a family friend, meets with her for the will he also gives her an envelope. Her mother had left it to tell her the true story, she had arrived from Italy pregnant and the dad Ave grew up with was not her biological father. In the envelope was a photo and name of her father in Italy. Unknown to her Jack finds the man and brings him to Big Stone Gap to surprise Ave, and she and Jack finally get together, right after she finds out her "man", the local band director, is really a homosexual.

I don't think I stopped smiling from the first frame until the end, even though a few times I was smiling through tears. Call it a chick flick if you will, but this is a film with great heart and more than a little gravitas. I have enjoyed Adriana Trigiani's novels for years and was pleased to see that Big Stone Gap was to be made into a film. I admit that I was a bit skeptical about the author serving as writer and director, but kudos to her for an outstanding job! The cast is excellent -- Ashley Judd and Patrick Wilson are just right as not-so-young single residents of a small Virginia town where everybody wants to mind their business. The supporting cast includes veteran actors such as Whoopi Goldberg, Jenna Elfman and Judith Ivey, who really pull their weight. It's funny, heartwarming, and absolutely beautiful, shot on location in the real town of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where Trigiani grew up (and where Patrick Wilson's grandparents lived. Go figure.) No phony Southern accents in this film - They get it right. Thank you!!

Adriana Trigiani is a fantastic writer especially if you are from the south and have moved away. Her humor is spot on with her southern twist. Love her books and have anxiously awaited seeing this movie for some time. I hope it gets better distribution soon. Fantastic cast. Ashley Judd, Whoopi & Jenna Elfman were cast perfectly for their characters and so was everyone else. Scenery was beautiful. I have read nearly all of her books and I hope we have a sequel soon because the story just gets better and better in the other books. Prepare to laugh and laugh. Her portrayal of a true small southern town is so special. You feel like you are part of the town and you feel like you know everyone. It's a turn back in time of the way things used to be. It's a special movie full of heart and soul.