Cultivar os Campos Selvagens

Somebody asked what the "radio waves" speech was all about. I believe Tom is trying, without reference to Christianity, to say that we are all immortal in the sense that radio waves are immortal. Even though FDR is dead, his words will continue to bounce, forever, like radio waves, from star to star in the universe. This struck me as a quite touching and genuine moment in the film. I was less enchanted with the biography provided for Tom, especially as it became known at the most opportune moment (the scene when Tom is being heroic). But the performances by the three leads were enough to keep me interested in this bittersweet film.

From the carefully crafted script to the touching performances by Sean Patrick Flanery, Joanne Whalley and Alexa Vega, the amount of care taken by the filmmakers is evident to even the casual viewer. I first saw this movie on Showtime, where it hooked me in while channel-surfing. I couldn't believe it wasn't a feature (I just recently rented it again after seeing it on the shelf in Blockbuster). Don't waste your money on the hype - rent this quiet, stirring film and be swept away.

Simply put, this is a well done film full of characters you come to care about. Joanne Whalley is perfect in this and one of the best roles I have ever seen her in. She is quite believable as a N. Carolina mother. These are the types of roles she's most brilliant at. As the mysterious drifter, Tom, Sean Patrick Flanery, too, stands out in a role that could easily be over-played. The drifter's background is slowly leaked out through the course of the movie, keeping you interesting and wanting to know more about him and those that come to care for him. Alexa Vega was also brilliantly cast in a very mature role for a young actor. While the ending was not what I would have liked (just the romantic in me talking) and the film's plot theme has been done many times before in other films, it doesn't spoil the overall goodness of this movie.

This film is well worth watching for the emotions that are allowed to develop between the main characters. The mysterious stranger has his own secrets, and it may possibly just have happened, (leaving room for artistic license.) I liked being caught into that particular time-frame of the '40's when morality still existed in the American culture, and people (generally) had depth of character. The film does not "assault" the viewer, like so many recent releases will assault the senses. Really well acted and directed, I thought.

Sean Patrick Flannery is reserved as a drifter who comes to a small town looking for work. Though the town believes he is a coward since he is not in the War, a young girl, who's mother has hired him to help run the farm now that her husband has disappeared in the War, finds the drifter fascinating and is torn as to whether she wants her father to return at all. The leads are fine and this is a quick watch without any heavy impact.