Strange Weather

Not really that impressive. I did not get much from it.

So Holly Hunter plays a woman that lost her son,  a few years back and then discovers that someone stole hurt son's idea and she's wants to do something about it. It a very personal piece about a mother's grief and wondering what part she had to play in her son's death and how big the part was. You get the point but I still did not get much from watching this story unfold.

I like the way the film looks and that's pretty much it.

A "road movie" loaded with pain, loss and that deplorable feeling of helplessness, a good plot, could have invested more in the son's tragic death, however the focus is all on the mother's pain, and the search for why he committed such attempt on life itself, a simple, short and sensitive outcome ... Single Movie ...

The lesson in Louisiana culture alone would have been worth it to watch this movie. We all know the immense difficulties in grieving a loved, but losing a son to suicide is unspeakable. This movie hits all the chords and pulls on almost all the broken heart strings addressing the issue like a hammer hitting a nail. Yet you barely know it, you just notice Holly Hunter stepping into a role making it 100% hers the way she does, and some top notch co-stars like Glenne Headly and Carrie Coon just made this a marvelous moving movie. Even Kim Coates has gone up a notch in my book. I'm so surprised it's only listed as a 6 something but probably kids watching didn't get it. Those of us older folks having experienced losses like that, we do.

My wife and I mostly wanted to watch this movie because we are Holly Hunter fans, she always does a great job of creating a character and her role here is no exception. It is set in N. Georgia, then involves a road trip to New Orleans through Mississippi. Most of it was filmed in Mississippi, Hunter was about 57 or 58 and skinny as a rail.

Seven years earlier her son had died of a self-inflicted gunshot. She had never really gotten over it, she still wonders if she somehow was at fault. What might she have done differently? Things change when she finds out her son's former friend and college mate has a successful chain of hot-dog businesses. As she digs, including the website for the business, she realizes that friend stole the idea, including the whole back story and the name of the business, from her son. She is positive because she had typed up the entire business proposal for his graduate school class.

So she has to dig more, she has to find out what really happened that night seven years earlier when a bunch of friends had gotten together. She has to take the road trip to New Orleans.

We found the viewing worthwhile. As I already mentioned here, Holly Hunter really gives a great performance, she is a tiny woman but very menacing when the need arises.

Streaming on Amazon Prime.

This movie didn't go a single step to cater to the action and twist driven drama that is the usual fare for the simple minded audience. Instead it tells a heartfelt story that feels profoundly real. The primary characters have deep friendships that can survive telling each other hard truths that need telling. When I realized where it was NOT going it gripped me even more firmly. I loved this film, cried twice, and adore Holly Hunter as much now as I did my first time seeing her in Raising Arizona. She is 6 weeks older than me and still makes my heart beat fast, dangerous at my age. This is a real drama that will survive over time and someday be a classic.