Review of The Dollmaker

Jane Fonda gets very few quiet moments to herself in this busy, bustling, overlong and melodramatic TV-movie adapted from Harriet Arnow's book by Susan Cooper and Hume Cronyn. Fonda plays Gertie Nevels, a farmer's wife from the hills of Kentucky who, in 1944, is forced to move with her gaggle of kids to the Detroit projects after her husband is rejected by the US Army and enlisted to work in a parts factory. We never see the factory or meet many of the husband's co-workers, as the focus here is on Jane's sufferin' and carin' for her displaced young 'uns. It's a good performance from Fonda (who won an Emmy); she radiates warmth or tenderness at all times, whether taking her youngest daughter to kindergarten on her first day or talking with one of her neighbors through the wall in her kitchen. However, director Daniel Petrie has directed this piece for maximum heart-tugging impact--and every other scene is designed to wallop us with sentiment. Gertie is a fish-out-of-water and must learn to grocery shop and cook on a gas stove, moments of character study that might work with another actress. But Jane Fonda has too intelligent a presence to convince us of her character's confusion (rube hesitancy isn't a natural fit for her). The star gives her all to this project, even hoping to bond with the artificial tykes playing her children (typical TV commercial kids). Petrie guides the film carefully, tastefully, but he goes overboard putting a halo around Gertie. He might have learned something from "Coal Miner's Daughter" in that the surrounding action must compliment the star, not pale in her wake. Six Emmy nominations in all, winning two including Julie Weiss for her costumes.