A Cooler Climate

Always enjoy the acting of Sally Field, (Iris) who plays the role of a woman who is divorced from her husband and he has poisoned the mind of her daughter not to see her or have anything to do with her. Iris seeks employment as a housekeeper in the home of Paula, (Judy Davis) and Paula is always trying to tell Iris just what to do and is rather critical of Iris's behavior which she does not understand. Paula wants Iris to keep an eye on her teenage daughter, Beth, (Carly Pope) who is wild and is rather self destructive and eventually winds up in trouble over in England. There are many twists and turns to this film and eventually Iris and Paula seem to become great friends only because of some tragic circumstances. Sally Field and Judy Davis gave great performances and Beth, Carly Pope gave a great supporting role. Enjoy.

Somewhere in-between dreary network made for TV movies and sappy chick flicks on the big screen lies "A Cooler Climate". I walked away from this movie and said, "Well it wasn't painful." Decent acting, decent script, decent story. No big surprises, no big disappointments. Overall a perfectly average movie. Which is fine, because this movie touched on basic human relationships and chronicled how two women started an important friendship that helped both of them put back together their lives. I gave it a seven out of ten just on the basis that nothing about "A Cooler Climate" annoyed me like dreary network made for TV movies or sappy big screen chick flicks. We all need a little forced sentiment in our lives and this was better than most.

"A Cooler Climate" isn't exactly a film of great brilliance. It's adequate in its execution, not really outstanding in any way. Susan Seidelman is clearly interested in the actors, but doesn't offer much regard to the technical aspects. I watched it for Judy Davis and Sally Field (why else would anyone bother, really?), and they're good enough. But it's possibly two of the least challenging performances I've ever seen from them, all shallow and out on the surface. The music by Patrick Williams is pure cheese, derivative of at least a dozen other similar films. The secondary characters are all cartoons, unconvincing and poorly acted.

This is made-for-TV film at it's least impressive. Normally, it's a low quality I'd never even encounter, but it's the acting talent involved that makes it so disappointing. Never mind with this one.

I hadn't intended to watch it, but from the beginning I was engrossed. It moved along at a rapid pace with no long gaps in action. I found the characters to be well defined and enchanting. I highly recommend viewing this movie.

What a treat to see Sally Field and Judy Davis appear together in a film that offered them roles to sink their acting teeth into. However they hold the tired old Formulae together in a film dealing with situations in such a way that we can safetly say, "we've seen it all before". But still worth a view just to catch the grande dames in action. It's a cross between "Murphy's Romance" meets "Men Don't Leave". But I still scored it a 9 because of the acting. Love Sally, love Judy.