Rambling Rose

Robert Duvall was splendid in this movie. I do not want to ruin it for people watching, so I can not tell you much but his acting was great as well as Laura Dern. What a dynamic and thought provocative movie with so many interesting twists that are unexpected. The wife was really good too. The morals of it, the conflicts, the family. This movie had it all, love, conflict, compassion, passion and all great acting too! I would imagine if this movie is a book I should read it actually. The nuances were subtle and well done, it did address some touchy topics as well. The young boy actor really was well cast too. I guess all in all, the casting was super, the dialog was well done and the way they captured the south was excellent as well.

Buddy recalls the Great Depression when Rose (Laura Dern) came to work for his family. She escaped prostitution in Birmingham to be the domestic servant. Kindly mother Hillyer (Diane Ladd) is partly deaf and was orphaned young. Rose flirts with father Hillyer (Robert Duvall) but he rebuffs her. Young Buddy (Lukas Haas) has a sexual encounter with Rose. She is desperate to stay and convinces him to keep it a secret. She continues to be flirtatious with the town's men. Father wants to send Rose away while mother argues to keep her.

This is a nostalgic jazzy rambling reminiscence of a compelling character. My only problem is that this movie takes a light tone making this almost a fable. Despite the childhood point of view, it needs to go for a darker mood to fit this sexualized tragedy. Director Martha Coolidge is caught between making a kid's coming of age journey and a young woman's walk on a dangerous tight rope. The light airy mood keeps the darker material at a distance.

I haven't seen this film in quite a while but I have pretty good memories about it. It's an intriguing film, something different and appealing even though some of the subject matter is "inappropriate."

I saw the last word because it involves a 13-year-old boy whose hormones are raging and his brief relationship with a grown woman. There is one sex scene that may make people squirm a bit, so be forewarned. Other than that, I don't remember anything else objectionable.

I like the photography and always enjoy seeing the old days - here it's the 1920s and 1930s - portrayed on today's films with the great cameramen and directors of today. Also, the South has some beautiful scenery that is eloquently on display here.

The story is well-acted with real-life mother-daughter Diane Ladd and Laura Dern, along with Robert Duvall and Lukas Haas. The latter plays the young man and was already somewhat of a star after playing the young Amish boy in the 1985 film "Witness." Duvall is one of the finest actors of his generation so you always get a good performance out of him.

This is a pretty low-key story but never puts you to sleep. Modern day feminists might like this film was Ladd plays that role to the hilt. Dern also delivered, making a very believable "Rose."

An ingénue nymphomaniac's turbulent life rooted in the 1930s depression period of southern USA, served as a housemaid in a hotel owner's home, our heroine Rose, an uncultured but stalwart gal whose miserable past is the hidden wound cuts her deep and being unaware of her sex-addicted disposition, her path of looking for Mr. Right is rather bumpy and poignant.

The film is narrated by Buddy, the eldest son of the hotel owner, Rose is his first love and always occupies a special place in his heart. Although Rose is the potent pillar of the film, female director Martha Coolidge has steadily integrates a handful of equally vivid characters (young Buddy, his Daddy and Mother) into a moderate template of chanelling and rescuing Rose from her self-destructive hazard, despite of wanting any laudable gambits in highlighting the narrative skills and the plot is always stuck into a hoary frivolousness, the complete work is at best satisfactory.

The film is noteworthy by setting a record in the history of the academy by virtue of a real mother-daughter pair garners two Oscar nominations in the same film, Dern and Ladd (a second collaboration in a film after Lynch's WILD AT HEART 1990, 7/10) both showcase their stunning acting bent. Dern has nailed a quite innately delicate role since Rose is the damaged goods by nature, but her pure kindness and innocence hasn't been impaired and her female vulnerability is the real gem under the circumstance, even if she would mature gracefully later and give a more challenging and nail-biting performance in Lynch's INLAND EMPIRE (2006, 7/10), this film is among the crests of her filmography nonetheless. Ladd, after the pompous and lavish turn in WILD AT HEART, unexpectedly chooses a more positive and orthodox good-lady embodiment, her award-worthy moment confidently present itself in the latter part of the film, and single- handedly salvaging Rose from the misogyny from seedy male-predominance. But Duvall is also glittering in his category-fraud (I put him in leading) portrait of a man who is much wiser than he initially appears, and a juvenile Lukas Haas, almost being provocative while driven by curious sex impulse to take advantage of Rose, which might be the most contentious segment of the film per se, and at least he acts like a pro.

My final conclusion is that regardless of its maternal inclination of female-skewing demography, it is indeed a thespian playing field with decent fodder.

I feel like there's a really great film hidden somewhere inside here. If not great, at least good. I don't think it really develops into anything too interesting, even if it's never outright bad. The performances are good enough to sustain some interest in what is going on, and the initial premise of it really does seem intriguing enough. Maybe it's just where the film went that it all seems sort of disappointing, and because of that I do think that the first half is noticeably stronger. Laura Dern really is brilliant in this though, as is both Duvall and Ladd. I can't really say I disliked, but I wouldn't really recommend it either. Seek it out if you must.