Sally Field won an Academy Award for her performance here, but it is John Malkovich who is the real stand out of the film - he plays a blind man very convincingly. The film itself is fairly well made, if perhaps not deserving of all the attention that it received at the time. Racism and difficult living issues are explored well, but it is all a little too grim, the characters are not easy to like, and it is predictable to a degree. However, none of these problems are the major downfall of the film. The main problem I had with it was the way it juggled two story lines. The Ed Harris and Lindsay Crouse subplot is nothing out of the ordinary, and it adds nothing to the film, except to act as a distraction to the central drama involving Sally Field. It is not a bad film though, and it has by all means an interesting ending. It is worth a look.
Review of Places in the Heart
