The Beans Of Egypt, Maine

The casting of Dutch actor Rutger Hauer as the patriarch of a family of backwoods New Englanders is symptomatic of the slippery grasp this film has on its source material, the best-selling novel The Beans of Egypt, Maine. In fact, the entire cast undermines this Yankee update of GOD'S LITTLE ACRE.

Alcoholic and pugnacious, Reuben "Ruby" Bean (Rutger Hauer) rides roughshod over his brood until a run-in with the marshal over illegal deer hunting lands Ruby a jail stretch for assault. While Ruby serves time, kin Beal Bean (Richard McGaw) pesters his woman, Roberta (Kelly Lynch), then impregnates teenaged neighbor Earlene (Martha Plimpton), the rebellious ...