Entre o Amor e a Guerra

This movie was filmed around the area where I live (I was almost in it but I was on vacation for callbacks). It is truly a great movie. The writing, cinematography, acting and directing were all superb. It is about a family who is the outsiders of the town of Cut Off in the 1940's because her husband threw barrels of illegal immigrants into the gulf that they were shipping to America for profit. Her husband has died and her family have to make lives for themselves but WWII hits hard on the community. The wife ends up housing a doctor who is really an illegal immigrant and they become close and a chain of events are sparked. I know a few people that were in the film. I know the girls (Britney Levron, Danielle Lagard) that are sitting at the table in the dance hall and one of the dancers (Natalie Duet). I also know the girl (Kayla Duet) that is in the crowd in the final scenes. She is the blonde that is shaking her head.All in all, A+ entertainment.

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.

This is one of my all-time favorite films. I don't understand the negative reviews. I think it is an underrated gem and have tried for years to find a way to stream it after seeing it broadcast on TV several years ago. The depth of the characters and the intrinsic interest of the subject matter have never faded from my mind. The characters are the most fascinating part. The Butcher's wife is a standout, called into action for some bizarre and gruesome, but very important work in her husband's absence. The two main characters are complex and I think will rendered the scoundrels's wife, so-called, played by Tatum. O'Neal is reserved and subtle, but given her circumstances and accusations of her, she can hardly be a Pollyanna, which seems to be what some critics were wanting O'Neill to portray. And the doctor well he's just overwhelming a character with one secret after another revealed.

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).

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 ****