The Scoundrel's Wife

Tatum O'Neal, attempting a movie-comeback, stars as a widowed mother of two in World War II Louisiana who's under a dark cloud after the locals suspect she may be a German sympathizer. Director Glen Pitre's sterling reputation with the critics precedes his work here; the filmmaker shows no distinguishing talent with story, narrative or actors. The men are mostly overwrought, young Lacey Chabert is totally out of the film's period, and O'Neal is kept too low-keyed and distant from us (and she looks wrung-out to boot). The movie's low-budget certainly doesn't help enrich the period flavor, and a good cast--including Julian Sands and an overacting Tim Curry as an alcoholic priest--is mostly forgettable (Curry does liven things up, though his comic mugging doesn't belong in a movie about U-boats and nefarious Louisiana fisherman). *1/2 from ****

In "Home Front", as the DVD was entitled, WWII German U-boats are sinking American ships off the coast of Louisiana and the little Cajun backwater town Cut Off, LA is getting the backlash. The film focuses on a woman (O'Neal) with a big secret, a doctor (Sands) with a medium sized secret, a priest with a little secret, and a USCG Ensign who is the wartime town cop and wants to know everybody's secret. Trying too hard to be all things to all people while lacking in focus, purpose, center of gravity, and character depth this mediocre little indie manages nominal drama - with O'Neal looking in need of some serious direction - while missing much of the smell, sound, and scenic beauty of Cajun country. Recommended only for fans of the players or anyone interested in the location or period. The DVD I watched had no CC's and only Spanish subtitles. (C+)

The Scoundrel's Wife did have potential to be much better than it was, the idea for the story was intriguing and there was some good talent(speaking as a fan of Tim Curry). It is certainly not a bad film, there are things to like and even the not-so-good things are not that disastrous, but at the end of the day it just felt lacking.

The scenery and locations are beautiful and there is a good amount of evocative period detail. The music is subtle and not intrusive and doesn't feel too sluggish or repetitive. There is evidence of some intelligent dialogue and scenes with heart, with a relatively sweet if brief moment between Tatum O'Neal and Julian Sands where she is amused by his dancing. And three performances are good, no bias is intended here but Tim Curry stood out here. He had the most interesting character, and he is amusing and charming but also appropriately subtle as Father Antoine without becoming eccentric or dull. Lacey Chabert brings much spirit and heart into her role and didn't seem too out of place too much, while Julian Sands is in refreshingly subdued mode and comes over as sympathetic and quietly dignified.

However, there are things that are less good. Most of the rest of the cast do come over as a little overwrought and Tatum O'Neal's performance felt too underplayed and lacking in emotion though with its moments. Glen Pitrie's direction is often so low-key that it felt like his heart wasn't properly in it, it's clear where the film is set and what the story is and effort is made in giving the film a nice bayou flavour(even if not always consistent) but there was overall a lack of intimacy and I never got really to know most of the characters. The Scoundrel's Wife is reasonably well shot and it's far from a bad-looking film, as seen in the previous paragraph, but there was at times too much of a TV film feel. The script and story have their moments, but the script does fall too often into melodramatic soap-opera that lacks flow and the story also has a good deal of melodramatic that is sometimes moving but too often ham-fisted, also feeling a little limp pace-wise. The ending to me seemed on the jumbled and far-fetched side.

In conclusion, not a bad film but a patchy one, partially recommended but not a must-see. 5/10 Bethany Cox

After checking this out of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library a couple of weeks ago, I finally watched Cut Off native Glen Pitre's The Scoundrel's Wife (or as printed in the movie proper-Home Front) with my parents. My dad was bored and left partly through but me and my mom stayed for the whole thing and both enjoyed it. Tatum O'Neal plays Camille Picou, a widow during World War II who's ostracized in her community that's the same as the director's because of something she and her late husband did during the '30s. Her teen children Florida (Lacey Chabert) and Blue (Patrick McCullough) don't find out what until the end. Meanwhile, a doctor from Germany (Julian Sands) has arrived and takes care of many other men from there as they arrive from U-boats wounded and sick. That doesn't sit will with many of the residents including a Coast Guard Ensign (Jack Burwell, played by Eion Bailey who I just found out lost the Batman role to Christian Bale for Batman Begins years ago) who is under pressure to make an arrest. I'll stop right there and mention that Pitre the director takes enough time with his and wife Michelle Benoit's screenplay to figure out who's with who and how times were in the Pelican State during the early '40s. There's also an amusing turn by Tim Curry as the local priest also originally from Germany who likes to drink. Many fine performances abound in this regional drama and besides McCullough who's from Metairie, other Louisiana natives acting in this production are Michael Arata (Coast Guard Commander) who was born in New Orleans and John McConnell (Dance Hall Owner) who was born in my now hometown of Baton Rouge and has a radio show in New Orleans. Wonderful location shots of Lafourche Parish and Lockport flow through the movie. This is the third movie written by Pitre that I've seen, the others being Belizaire the Cajun and Hurricane on the Bayou which I saw at the IMAX theatre in the Cresent City. For anyone interested in Louisiana period flavor, I highly recommend The Scoundrel's Wife (a.k.a. Home Front).

This film may only have viewing value to local people from South Louisiana as one of the other reviewer's has stated, but the story line is loosely based on historic events occurring before and during World War II. My mother, who was raised in Mathews Louisiana tells stories of how one of our distant relatives kicked barrels loaded up with Chinese illegals over the side of his boat because the authorities were after him. She also told us stories of how after a German U-boat had been sunk off of the coast of Louisiana, a ticket to the local picture show was found on one of the German's bodies that washed ashore. There were also loaves of French bread from Dufrene's Bakery in Golden Meadow, LA in the debris. Food and diesel were rationed to most people, but shrimp weren't bound by the rationing rules due to the shrimp's food value. Glen Petri tells his tale in a way to tie these stories together in a very entertaining way in my opinion.