Concours de circonstance

This little picture unexpectedly blew me away. Both Pfeiffer and Haysbert clearly gave it their all in these roles. This film deserves cult status -- don't sleep on it!

An obsessed beautician heads for DC when JFK is assassinated. Along the way, she loses her husband, but finds something within herself she never knew was there; courage and fortitude.

Fraught with dangers only our parents remember, this film shows you what the US was like back in the late 50's, early 60's. It also teaches us that we haven't changed that much, as a nation, in the last 50 years.

Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Haysbert, and Stephanie McFadden endear with their honesty in this gripping drama by Jonathan Kaplan (Project X, the Firm, and Bad Girls). The performances are heartening and lends us hope that things genuinely CAN improve in the future. Not necessarily that they will, but that it is possible, should we apply our hearts to the problem.

This is a great film, though you have to be in the right mood for it.

It rates an 8.2/10 from...

the Fiend :.

I love the relationship between the three characters. A very well directed movie.

Michelle Pfeiffer's Oscar nominated performance anchors 1992's LOVE FIELD, a surprisingly moving marriage between character study and buddy movie that draws the viewer in with the draw of vividly human characters involved in a somewhat over the top story that manages to hold our attention due to the extreme likability of the two main characters. Pfeiffer plays a Dallas beautician named Lurene in 1963, who is so devastated by the assassination of JFK that she decides, against her husband's wishes, to travel to Washington DC to attend JFK's funeral and, en route, befriends a black man (Dennis Haysbert)traveling with his daughter, and the relationship that develops between the two when circumstances find the three of them on the run together. The story taken on an unexpected richness because these two people are part of the racially turbulent 1960's and because of the beautifully evocative performances from the stars. Pfeiifer, in particular, gives us a sad and slightly pathetic creature, wearing a platinum blonde Mariyln Monroe wig that seems to represent her desire to be someone else, her Lurlene is slightly ditzy, bored,lonely, but with a heart as big as all outdoors and the quiet dignity that Haysbert brings to his character in this tense situation is on target. Brian Kerwin also scores in the most significant role of his career as Lurene's abusive brute of a husband, but it is the performances and chemistry of the two stars that make this journey a memorable one.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays a middle-class 60s housewife who idolizes Jackie O. When JFK is assassinated, she leaves her husband and road trips to his funeral to show solidarity with her icon. Along the way she meets a black man (Dennis Haysbert) and his young daughter. She immediately befriends them but realizes they are hiding a secret. Soon she is swept up in their lives and finds herself on the run from the FBI.

This is the best performance I've ever seen by Pfeiffer. She is practically unrecognizable--her southern accent is perfect and her Jackie O-inspired look is classic. She adds a welcome dose of humor to a film that is often emotionally overwhelming. The movie alternates between adorable and disturbing, but never gets too extreme either way. The plot gets a bit contrived at times, but the movie serves to question the comfort of routine middle-class existence, so it works. I am surprised this is not a well-known film. It is one of the best ones I've seen from the early 90s.

My Rating: 8/10.