Skillfully directed by Peter Masterson, who called the shots on 1985's exceptional THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, this "small" comedy-drama takes place mostly in the Blue Water Grill, a nearly patronless small-town bar on the Texas Gulf Coast. Oblivious to the bar's failure, its owner, Hackman,
passes his days watching home movies of his missing wife, who has been given up for dead by everyone but him. The other resident of the Blue Water Grill is Burgess Meredith, Hackman's wheelchair-bound father-in-law, a cantankerous stroke victim cared for by former mental patient Koteas. The daily
routine at the grill is interrupted when Cooney offers to buy the property for $45,000 and warns that Hackman could lose the place for failure to pay his back taxes. Soon Cooney's partner, a local government official, confronts Hackman with an ultimatum--pay the taxes or else. Against this
backdrop Garr, a pretty bus driver who sleeps with Hackman despite his inability to resign himself to his wife's demise, makes her play for a more permanent position in his life and uncovers some important news.
With A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, Masterson proved he could direct an entertaining, moving film about people. This might not seem like a particularly distinctive accomplishment--but given Hollywood's predilection for "high-concept" works, small films about people dealing realistically with one another
still stand out. FULL MOON IN BLUE WATER is another such film. The story moves along at a leisurely pace that is perfectly suited to the Texas characters it delineates so carefully, allowing conflict to develop as a believable product of the personalities and situations presented. Masterson, who
is himself an actor, has a reputation as an actor's director, and with this film he has elicited nothing but first-rate performances from his cast, especially the masterfully restrained Hackman as a man who, in refusing to accept his wife's death, has himself given up on life. (Profanity, adult
situations, sexual situations.) leave a comment
