A Death in the Family

This fine production is a beautiful and faithful adaptation of the classic novel "A Death in the Family" about a 1915 Tennessee family with an almost idyllic life that is shaken with tragedy. In the lead role as Mary Follett, Annabeth Gish gives an amazing and touchingly real performance showing all the facets of this sensitive but strong woman who is a wife, mother, daughter, neice and sister to the other characters who are also excellently portrayed.

Those of us in law enforcement are well aware of the strange syndrome in which those who witness the same event give wildly differing descriptions. So it is with films. Based on other critiques I've read, apparently "A Death In The Family" is as underwhelming for some as it was overwhelming for me. I find that, as usual, Annabeth Gish delivers the goods. One of the best kept "secrets" in recent film history, Ms Gish performs with abundant warmth and intelligence. She wisely underplays a role that in lesser hands might have contained an overbearing flurry of emotions. Outside of James Cromwell I was not familiar with any of the other actors but mention must be made of those portraying Gish's brother and aunt. The very title of the project obviously implies it is not going to be a Sunday school picnic.You will witness a disparate but inter-related group undergoing a severely traumatic event. It was a quick 91 minutes for me, and if you love and miss the golden age of film-making this is a more than adequate fill-in.

This movie was horrible and corny. James Agee is rolling in his grave.This movie was nothing at all like the book and made a mockery of it. No one should see this movie unless they want to gag.

A simply beautiful, powerful, exquisite gem of a film superbly acted and directed by Gil Cates. Ordinary events of turn of the century life spawn deeply felt emotion as a family struggles to right itself when one member is killed in a car wreck. The acting has you believing these are not superbly drawn characters from the Agee masterpiece but real people coping with the injustice of mortality. Watching the ensemble interact was like being in a family living room over a hundred years ago and going through the gut-wrenching reality of life at its most complex turning point. I have no idea why it received such a low rating from viewers. There are only a handful of movies ever made that combine the elements of storytelling so perfectly as this one and have you saying at the end that it was perfect. This is one of them. I'm reminded of the first time I viewed Paths of Glory or To Kill a Mockingbird among others where every piece of the puzzle fit. Give this one a look and you will not be disappointed.

As I watched this movie, I felt as if a plastic bag was slowly closing in around my head. The acting was horribly stifling, and it was Bad Acting. The most brilliant piece of acting in the entire film was the guy who had to play laid-out-in-state-in-a-coffin. I felt nothing but relief when it was finally over. I was expecting that this film was going to be some real tragedy, with some deep psychological intrigue in the aftermath. All around it was stupid, no beginning, no climax, no ending, just rambling on and on, and the plastic bag kept getting worse. Let's get real here. This is an awful movie.