The Yellow Handkerchief

We saw this as part of a preview cinema club we belong to. And we're happy we did.

The Road Movie is one of Hollywood's long-standing (some would say overused) idioms. From It Happened One Night through Butch Cassidy, Bonnie & Clyde, and Thelma & Louise, to Little Miss Sunshine, good road movies can be a joy. Bad ones, though, are a major drag.

This is a GOOD road movie. Three things make it special. First, it's about three losers, or -- let's just say it -- weird people. None of these characters start out with much appeal (except Kristen Stewart's great looks), but each grows right in front of our eyes throughout the movie. By the end, we like and find ourselves rooting for each, for different reasons. (In this way, the film reminds me most of the wonderful Hackman/Pacino 1970s vehicle Scarecrow, a much under-appreciated film.)

Second, there is splendid acting throughout. Kristen Stewart is headed for stardom, William Hurt does justice to a role only Jeff Bridges could play as well (have we forgotten what a great actor he is?), and the most surprising piece, young British actor Eddie Redmayne, does a terrific turn as a strange kid with a car.

Third, there's the film's perspective, about tolerance, acceptance of things as they are, and forgiveness -- for loved ones and above all for ones self.

Watch it!

Great Love story, I like it when you Americans put a bunch of characters on a road trip. Classic!. This film takes you beyond the bitter part of life back into the sweet.

The music just blend in, the camera capture is somewhat 'spiritual'.

Simple movie, brought tears to my spirit's eyes. This one truly touches the heart. One great movie making!. Salute. The cast is perfect in their place.

People may shine only in a moment in their life. And that moment will shine forever in whosoever is touched by it. I almost give up on Hollywood, but this shows, you still can do it right!

Salute ^ ^

If you are planning on seeing this, DO! It is a bit slow but you will come to love the characters and their flaws. It is not average road-trip to self discovery it is more. The lead characters have a tense and fearful journey ahead. As they open themselves up to each other we see the story take a journey that reminds me of To Kill A Mockingbird as we see the film from two innocent teenagers points of view. The writing is sarcastic and not at all Hollywood flashy it is down to earth and heart warming. A truly uplifting story to all who to let your teenager nature over-run them for 2 hours. You just might believe there is a happy ending in life for everyone. You should watch this movie, it is not one to miss!!

A perfect crescendo. During an admittedly slow first half of the film, the audience is drawn in to the actors and the cajun background, its lush greenery and its languid place in Americana.

The actors hold up brilliantly at this pace -- William Hurt is a standout and a more-than-worthwhile Oscar candidate as the sullen, "ghost"-like ex-con and Eddie Redmayne jumps to the fore as a bizarre, overgrown child. The scenery and the pull of post-Katrina New Orleans is powerful, forcing personal choices and sticking in the back of our minds.

Then, when the action turns, and the plot suddenly speeds forward for the latter half of the movie, the viewer has already been drawn so deep inside these rich, pained characters and the twisted swampland that its emotional force, punctuated by minute changes in Hurt's eyes, knowingly elicits empathy and sympathy.

The force of the movie is the slowness, the languid pace that draws the viewer in, and the acting, as good an ensemble as anything that I've viewed this year. It is slow, but slow can be good, good as a cajun conversation.

Road trips in American film have often been flamboyant metaphors—Easy Rider and Thelma and Louise come quickly to mind. The Yellow Handkerchief will not be remembered so readily given its low-key, Southern slow delivery. Yet it has a subtle power to inform the Louisiana bayou landscape with meaning as three strangers embark by auto for destinations barely known.

Brett Hanson (William Hurt) has just been released from 6 years in prison for manslaughter. Ignorant of this fact is Martine (Kristen Stewart), a fifteen year-old runaway, who invites Brett to ride with her and Gordy (Eddie Redmayne), who is a stranger and a strange young man having the advantage of a convertible and enough cash for a trip that might end up in New Orleans.

Like a European film, Handkerchief takes it time to reveal character, meet a conflict and climax, and settle down to its title, which is unsubtly tied to the handkerchief and a pop tune about an ex-convict "comin' home." Hurt, one of America's finest actors, brings gravity and melancholy to a role that requires sorrow and redemption to ride along with hope. I hope he receives a well-deserved Oscar nod and the grand prize—think of Jeff Bridges' win for Crazy Heart, a more histrionic part than Hurt's understated torture.

While I'm still trying to warm up to Kristen Stewart as anything but a vampire lover of little acting range beyond a hesitating delivery, Maria Bello as May, Brett's love interest, is plain persuasive as the one who tries to understand and work with the eccentricities of Brett.

Of course, Katrina as family wrecker is quietly in the background, and because this is a story of the search for family, or "belonging to something," the hurricane informs every grasp for lost love as the vanished twin towers might do. If you want slow exposition that offers character development of the first order, then ride along with these three misfits to find a bit of yourself in the journey.