SPOILERS... I had just finished this excellent book and was excited about seeing the film. In particular I was looking for resonant scenes like Larry's kitchen cabinets left out in the rain, the building chemistry between Ginny and Jess, the mounting sense of loss felt by Ginny when each of her family members betrays her, particularly the last wounding blow from Rose. The film rushes from scene to scene, never giving any moment time to resonate with emotion. The result is the feeling that you don't get to know or care about any of the characters. In the book I felt sorrow and shock when Pete died, in spite of his many flaws. In the film he is about as two-dimensional as you can get. Jessica Lange has chops as an actress and could have made Ginny into the sympathetic character she is in the book. Unfortunately, the screenplay and direction didn't allow for it. The film feels mechanical, almost like you can picture the director checking off each scene in her to-do list. Make the breast cancer known, check. Show attraction between Ginny and Jess by having him touch her neck, check. Show Larry deciding to give up the farm, check. I agree with those who said it felt like a Lifetime special. I'm disappointed because the actors are top-notch, especially the freakishly gorgeous Michelle Pfeifer and the criminally under-rated Jennifer Jason Leigh. The land was just as much a character in the book as any of the people, and I wonder what the director could have been thinking by not showing this more. In the end you feel like the sexual abuse and the death of a sister are manipulative plot devices to jerk out the tears. I blame the direction and the screenplay adaptation. Terrence Mallick could have done justice to this great book. I wonder what Jane Smiley thought.
Review of A Thousand Acres
