A Cooler Climate

This movie is awesome. A Divorcée meeting a new love, trying to overcome the mistakes of her past. She is spawning new friendships in a new town, One turning point was when she decided to go to the reading night at the book store. A pompous, starchy, rich bitch who forms a lasting bond of friendship with her house keeper. A couple of reverse rolls--what more could you ask for. A real tear jerker at times. Sally Field has always been one of my favorite actresses and continues to be after seeing this movie. Some of the actors/actresses portrayed, I had never seen before--but I will look for them in the future--in more movies.

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.

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.

When I cut on Lifetime, I said, "Oh, well, just a Sally Field movie on." However, as I became involved in the movie, I realized that the story was captivating--as was Sally Field. She remains very attractive, and she can stimulate a range of emotions in viewers.

The movie was not predictable, because there were several times I thought I knew the next step--but each time I was wrong. So the film moved well past soap opera status.

My only criticism: Her professional advancement seemed a bit too rapid. Other than that, I rate the story very highly, and rank her acting A plus.

"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.