La tête dans le carton à chapeaux

I wasn't sure what to expect of this film but afterwards I was glad I had watched it. Great performances, esp. from Meatloaf and Lucas Black. He's going to be a star when he's older! When I saw that Antonio Banderas had directed it, I thought "Oh, here's another one of those films where the actor/director has to put his wife in the leading role.. blah blah blah" but it was a really good film. Overall, I give it a 8/10.

I am in the process of trying to clean out an oversupply of VHS tapes and some of them are so easy to toss. Not this one. I had to sit down and watch it again and now I could only get rid of the VHS if I had it on DVD! I have not watched this movie in more than six years and it was "feel good" and "feel" all over again. David Morse is always wonderful. Lucas Black, Cathy Moriarty, Meat Loaf, Elizabeth Perkins, and many others are just a treat to watch. There's something about Melanie. I can't help liking her - even when I am finding fault with her. This movie really is strange with its incredibly serious (and gruesome) subject matter of a woman who methodically murders and decapitates her husband and then carries his head around with her - first in Tupperware and then in a very stylish hat box! The surprising part is that there is any plausibility at all, but it somehow existed for me. It had a strange feeling floating about it that was akin to "Forrest Gump" or "Nurse Betty", because it involved situations that were truly horrible, but everything kept working out for a sweet and naive character. The civil rights story was a very poignant counterpoint to the fantastic silliness of Lucille's odyssey. If I were a film student I may have sat there and criticized the way things came together, but I just watched it with an untrained eye, so it was fine. I certainly would have made the connection about a freedom theme even if they hadn't come out and stated it in the end. No one says a story has to be believable or plausible for it to work. This did work. I laughed a lot when I least expected to.

I loved this film.

I am not normally a fan of Melanie Griffith, but she is superb as the Southern Belle, Lucille.

Antonio Banderas does a brilliant job behind the camera, telling two stories both about the difference between Justice and what is Just.

Rod Steiger is superb in his cameo role as the judge.

Watched this because it has Antonio Banderas's directing his wife Melanie Griffith.

There are 2 ongoing stories set in the 60s in Alabama. An abused wife (Melanie Griffith) kills her husband and sets off to Hollywood to make it as an actress carrying her husband's head in a hatbox. Her nephew (Lucas Black) witnesses the local sheriff murder a young black boy after a dispute about using the local swimming pool. It's part feel good fantasy and civil rights commentary.

Melanie still looks young and slim and gives her signature ditzy performance. The filming is quite beautifully and colorfully done. Worth a watch.

CRAZY IN ALABAMA / (1999) **1/2 (out of four)

By Blake French:

"Crazy in Alabama" is actually very well constructed; with good performances by a strong supporting cast, including David Morse ("The Green Mile"), Rod Steiger ("End of Days")" Meat Loaf Aday ("Fight Club"), and a compelling leading performance by director Antonio Banderas' wife, Melanie Griffith. Based on the novel by Mark Childress, who also wrote the screenplay, the movie suffers not from poor quality of filmmaking, but from the filmmakers trying to cram way to much material in the 111 minute movie.

The performers are hard at work here, but they can not possibly conquer the problems the production experiences due to the overcrowded script, which actually includes three separate stories of equal importance. The first details a woman named Lucille (Melanie Griffith), who dreams of becoming a famous actress in Hollywood after chopping off her cruel husband's head. She commits the murderous act to escape his overbearing clutches. "There are a lot of ways you can kill a person. There are fast ways, and there are slow ways. Chester was killin' me the slow way for thirteen years." Obviously Lucille preferred the fast way when it came to putting an end to her spouse.

The next story revolves around a civil right movement in Alabama. A young black teenager, Taylor Jackson (Louis Miller) is killed by a local prejudice sheriff named John Doggett (Meat Loaf Aday), who angrily pulls the innocent victim off a fence after he and his friends protest against the prohibition of swimming in the city pool. The late boy's parents attempt to lead a civil right crusade while trying to build a case to make Doggett pay for his crime.

Through another story is where these stories are linked. We see these events through the point of view of a young man's realization of life in the South without parents. This character, named Peejoe (Lucas Black), is the nephew of Lucille. She trustingly reveals all her secrets to Peejoe before she heads for Hollywood. He is also the only witness the violent act of Sheriff Doggett, placing him in the middle of the civil rights movement. Peejoe is not the center of the movie, however, and his character is completely unneeded and only adds additional complexity to the screenplay. He is simply an excuse to interlock the other two plots, and the attempt does not work.

The stories by themselves are very interesting, with inventive and original ideas and some thought-provoking messages. The film feels convincing in its development of the setting and atmosphere; the 1960's are captured with intrigue. Although it is his first feature film, Antonio Banderas, also a well-known actor starring 1999's Viking drama "The 13th Warrior," he should have realized the complexity of the plot as a negative contribution. There are movies in which multiple stories make the production unique and innovative, like "Traffic," "Magnolia," and "Pulp Fiction," but those movies blended their narratives together carefully, "Crazy in Alabama" only makes excuses for its actions.