Thousand Acres, A Review

Shakespeare`s King Lear has been transplanted to the American mid-west with a fair amount of poetic licence in A Thousand Acres. This Lear concentrates on the two sisters - Goneril and Regan - here known as Ginny and Rose -- Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer. Lear, or Larry, -- Jason Robards - is a farmer of his inherited thousand acres. The land is rich and when the children were young life seemed unhurried, confident, secure. When their mother died suddenly the two older sisters looked after the youngest Caroline - Jennifer Jason Leigh - who becomes a lawyer working in Des Moines. The two other women and their husbands have stayed on the land supporting their father. At a party to welcome home a neighbour`s son Jess - Colin Firth - Larry tells the family of his plans, which he will later regret, to divide the land between the three daughters.A Thousand Acres is based on Jane Smiley`s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It`s the second American film to be directed by Jocelyn Moorehouse. Laura Jones adapted the novel for the screen. Unfortunately the film throws up, but fails to address, so many key issues. Larry is obviously ill, senility is setting in. Ginny and Rose were sexually abused by him and Rose especially has a great hatred for her father. It`s a hatred that will come to affect Ginny who was always a woman who looked for the best in things. Caroline and Larry are virtually discarded in the film to focus on the wallowings of the two older sisters. There`s a melodrama to the film that just doesn`t ring true unfortunately. While it`s heartening to see those two beautiful women on screen together - Pfeiffer and Lange - their characters are given very little basis for development. It just seems like a convenient afterthought to make them the victims of abuse. Keith Carradine gives a fleeting dignity to his role as Ginny`s husband. At the very end of the film my verdict was sentimental slop, I`m afraid.