Search
What's Hot
Day-by-Day Fall Schedule
Idol Winner Speaks!
Jim Parsons Comes Out
Game of Thrones Star's Sex Stare

A Thousand Acres

1997, Movie, R, 104 mins

A Thousand Acres: Review

THOUSAND ACRES, A
starstarstarstar
Proof that Hollywood no longer knows how to make that former staple, the women's picture, this unsuccessful weeper chronicles the dissolution of a family farm through the eyes of dutiful eldest daughter Ginny (Jessica Lange). The Cross farm, 1,000 acres of rich, debt-free Iowa land, has been in the family for three generations, and aging patriarch Larry (Jason Robards) lords over land and relatives like a homespun feudal aristocrat. But his impetuous decision to retire and parcel out the property to daughters Ginny, Rose (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Caroline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) stirs up festering resentments, brings family skeletons clattering out of the closet and taints the lives of all involved. You can see why Pfeiffer and Lange optioned Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel: Juicy roles like Ginny and Rose are in shamefully short supply these days. But Laura Jones' screenplay preserves the novel's weaknesses, particularly the underdevelopment of the supporting characters, notably youngest sister Caroline, while abandoning some of its strengths. The loss of the richly detailed texture that keeps its tabloid-TV elements --- incest! cancer! miscarriage! toxic water! wife beating! adultery! -- from becoming a shallow, overwhelming litany of hot-button miseries is especially unfortunate. Lange and Pfeiffer, dressed down in authentically dowdy farmer's wife duds, act their hearts out. But there isn't enough emoting in the world to smooth over the film's choppy storytelling (director Jocelyn Moorhouse and Disney reportedly clashed) and overly explicit dialogue that too often seems to be filling in for missing scenes. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
Are You Watching?
A Thousand Acres
Loading ...
Advertisement

Our Partners

Advertisement

Related Websites

You might be also interested in the following websites:

Most Popular TV Shows

  1. American Idol
  2. NCIS
  3. Big Bang Theory
  4. Voice
  5. Person of Interest
more popular tv shows

Most Popular Celebrities

  1. Jessica Simpson
  2. Khloe Kardashian
  3. Kate Middleton
  4. Maria Menounos
  5. Kim Kardashian
more popular celebrities

Most Popular Movies

  1. Avengers
  2. Battleship
  3. The Dictator
  4. Dark Shadows
  5. What To Expect When You're Expecting
more popular movies

Top Videos

  1. Revenge
  2. Sneak Peek: Motor City Money
  3. The Big Bang Theory
  4. Modern Family
  5. Mom of the Fleet
more top videos