The Grass Harp

After watching The Grass Harp I felt I had just experienced a feast! If you are tired of the McDonald's diet of recent Hollywood formula movies than you will welcome this gourmet quality film!

Based on Southern writer Truman Capote's boyhood, the story reveals the nuances of small town life with humor and wit. The lush visuals and lyric pace create a leisure mood befitting the 1930's when life was simpler. The golden sepia tones of the scenes subtly transport us into the memories of Collin, through whose eyes the story is told. The Southern ambiance, social graces and simple pastimes of a bygone era are beautifully recreated in the world surrounding the characters.

I love the barbershop scenes, where locals gather to socialize and get the latest news. You just want to hang out in the shop and shoot the breeze with Walter Matthau and Roddy McDowell. Joe Don Baker is the perfect southern sheriff and his sidekick Ralph (a rooster) adds a hilarious touch of eccentricity to his tough good-old boy demeanor. Charles Durning is hilarious as a self-righteous preacher that can't wait to kick Mary Steenbergen and her brood of a dozen kids out of town.

Piper Laurie is the heart and soul of the movie as Dolly Talbo. The timid and ethereal Dolly has been living under the thumb of her overbearing sister (Sissy Spacek) but manages to create a unique life of meaning for herself. Edward Furlong plays their teen nephew Collin who comes to live with them.

Dolly and her housekeeper (Nell Carter) take Collin under their wing and try to help him adjust to life in this small southern town. As Dolly advises Collin about the girl he has a crush on, she too falls in love for the first time in her life.

Piper Laurie glows like a young girl around the young-at-heart Judge Cool (Walter Matthau). Their scenes together are sweet and heartbreaking.

The movie is beautiful, both visually and emotionally. It is funny, sad, and touching. Don't rush this viewing. Sit down with a glass of wine and savor.

The Grass Harp is a feast for the eyes and soul!

A delightful movie from Truman Capote's memoir of his boyhood in the South. It is both tender and poignant. The acting is excellent. Piper Laurie as the orphan's free-spirited aunt is superb. Sissey Spacek as the other aunt is excellent. The atmosphere of that time, comes alive. A worthwhile movie for those with a tender heart.

Directed by Walter Mathau's son Walter, this is a superb adaptation of on one of Truman Capote's best stories about how Southern misfits in the 1930's help each other survive. Both Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek, as the wealthy Talbo sisters, are perfectly cast and neither has ever been better. Walther Mathau, under his son's direction, in his most sympathetic roles, plays a retired judge. Every member of the spectacular cast is completely understandable: Jack Lemon and Mary Steenburgen are a pair of hilarious but unrelated con-artists. Nell Carter is the Talbo sister's very feisty cook, Joe Don Baker is the bumbling sheriff, Charles During the preacher, and Roddy McDowall is the gossipy barber. Look for Doris Roberts (Ray Romano's 'mom') as Mrs. Richards and for the director himself, Charles Mathau, as a barbershop regular.

If you're looking for an action-packed movie you probably won't enjoy this beautiful piece of film-making. You absolutely have to change gears to appreciate the wonderful and sensitive story it tells. Watching this movie is very much like watching an extended episode of The Waltons, right down to the narration and beautiful music. Good performances by all, and I especially enjoyed Piper Laurie's portrayal of sensitive and delicate Dolly Talbo, who lives under the thumb of her younger sister, played by Sissy Spacek. Ironically, Piper Laurie played Spacek's mother 19 years earlier in Carrie. The movie tells a tale of life and love in a small Southern town, and days gone by.

Having said that, the one criticism I have of the movie is that I didn't really CARE about the characters. I enjoyed very much watching the characters interact, and being reminded of life in a world that has almost completely disappeared. But I was more amused by them than passionate about them.

While this film may not be perfect, it's a wonderful movie; more intelligent than at least 90% of what comes out of Hollywood. As another reviewer suggested, if you have a couple of hours of quiet time, sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy.

...based on a short story by Truman Capote, and is mainly set in 1940. The film meanders at times, and the sad ending (right from the story, probably) is a bit of a letdown, but its still worth seeing for an excellent cast and graceful staging.

As the story begins in a prologue set in 1935, a young boy (Edward Furlong) is sent to live with his two spinster aunts following the death of his parents. These aunts might be sisters, but they are decidedly different; one is a hard-nosed businesswoman who owns many of the shops in town (Sissy Spacek), the other (Piper Laurie) is gentle and childlike, keeps house, and makes a homeopathic dropsy cure. After a few years pass, the two sisters have a falling out over taking the homeopathic cure into a factory setting, Laurie, Furlong, and maid Nell Carter decamp to the woods while waiting for Spacek to change her mind.

That is the main thrust of the plot, but there are all sorts of familiar faces in here as well: Walter Matthau as a retired judge and suitor for Laurie, Mary Steenburgen as a tent revivalist with 15 children, and brief cameos from the likes of Jack Lemmon, Roddy McDowell, Charles Durning, Scott Wilson, and Doris Roberts. This film is very little known, but it's worth tracking down for Laurie's performance especially.