A Thousand Acres (1997)

......... ........... ............ ............ ............. from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA...and ORLANDO, FLDespite having seen A Thousand Acres in a theater 16 years ago, for some reason, I blocked it out and had little recollection of it. Funny how we humans often block things out. In fact, I'd like to call ACRES a "Human Flick"...(As opposed to...you know what!) Nothing compares to a movie that consistently refuses to follow your expectations. At least for me, from beginning to end, despite having seen it before, I just couldn't get it right! KUDOS to ACRES.Produced by, Based on a novel written by, Screenplay by, Directed by and Starring WOMEN! YES...They do it ALL!...A job exquisitely well-done, I might add! From the onset, it's obvious that patriarch Larry Cook (Jason Robards, Jr., in one of his last really meaty, showcase roles) together with his three daughters; played masterfully by Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Stunning ensemble performance); form an utterly dysfunctional family. Apparently, the premature death of Larry's wife, the girls' mother, when they were all children, served as the defining event in all their lives, derailing each member and hurtling them into disparate realities; The operative word here being, "Apparently".Robards is inspired as the old-school, ironfisted farmer, who, because of his age, is beginning to show a few cracks, starting to lose his grip. Probably sensing this, the old-man pulls the rug out from everyone when he announces at a family dinner that he has decided to screw the government out of inheritance taxes on his choice Thousand Acres by forming a corporation where each daughter is an equal partner.All his daughters are stunned, but the two eldest go along with the idea. Caroline, the youngest, who happens to be a lawyer, exercising professional caution, says she'd like to think it over a bit. The old man is beside himself, causing him to set off a chain of events. There is a very deftly handled undercurrent that adds a potent dose of tension to the film throughout. Phenomenal ending, however, judging from the IMDb 5.9 Rating, it seems a lot of viewers don't agree!9*....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English or Español, are most [email protected]

I just watched this movie for the first time after finishing the book last week. What's the problem here? Folks admit that the performances are great--I mean, Lange is stellar!--and that the film is good-looking, but it's got less than a '6'! I don't get it. Come on! The writing's not that bad!Having read a lot of Pulitzer-winning novels, and having seen a lot of the films based on them, I think a better-than-decent job was done in bringing the screenplay together. I thought the paring down of all the dialogue in the novel was executed almost perfectly. This story had a pretty hefty amount of dialogue in it, and the story really came through on the screen despite the fact that only a portion of it was used.**BOOK SPOILER PART** I was, however, a little disappointed in the Ginny-tries-to-kill-Rose subplot's being omitted. I thought that was one of the more emotionally jarring parts of the book, but it was probably a good bet to leave it out. Avid movie-goers, more than avid readers, I think, tend to be less forgiving of protagonists pulling antagonistic stuff. It's apt to confuse Johnny Lunchpail and Joe Sixpack.If you loved the book, you will like the movie. If you hated the book, you will likely hate the movie.********Rog

The cast is superb but the script is hopeless. It scatters its potential in all directions: a bit of courtroom drama, breast cancer, a farmboy lover and a childhood of sexual abuse until your head is spinning. And it's not the fault of the cast, Jessica Lange in particular is superb.

Sadly a great opportunity to utilise a superb cast to bring King Lear up to date. However, instead, we got a contrived family drama that appeared to dip into Lear when the writer had run out of ideas, the cast worked hard but it just didn't gel. Recently Stephen Harrigan showed how to adapt and update the classics with his screenplay for the magnificent TV movie "King of Texas".