Secrets

A Jane Smiley novel, loosely based on Shakespeare's KING LEAR about the Cook family and its dark secrets. Director Moorhouse seems tamed in her approach, allowing the characters to step forward and take a bow. And how could you go wrong with the talents of Pfeiffer, Lange, Leigh, Firth, Carradine and Robards?

A Thousand Acres (1997:***) This sober drama lasted about a week in theaters and was dismissed as dreary soap opera by most critics. There are echoes of "King Lear" in the story of a wealthy farmer who decides to divide his estate among his three daughters. But I thought the reviews overestimated the extent to which the story uses the Lear parallels. It's just a catalyst for a strong drama of family conflicts and repressed memories coming to the fore that soon goes its own way. There are some script problems: the youngest daughter's loyalty to her cruel father seems quite inexplicable, and as a lawyer you would think she'd know better than to put a hopelessly senile person on the witness stand. The fine cast does pretty well, especially Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer, although as usual Jennifer Jason Leigh is barely adequate as the youngest sister. Maybe watching this on a stormy Sunday night helped put me in the mood, but I rather enjoyed this one.

I was really looking forward for this picture since i heard that Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange would star together. But when i eventually went to see it i must say i was a bit disappointed. I don't say that the movie was bad ,but the fact that i expected much more from it , make me regard it an average movie. The direction was very poor and the editing unacceptable. The adaption seemed to lack in many ways and Jennifer Jason Leigh was unbearable. But seeing Pfeiffer ang Lange together on screen made me forget everything. These two great actresses proved for once more their talent. When you see them together on screen you forget all the disadvantages the movie has and there's nowhere else you want to be. They both deserved Oscar nominations and Lange probably the award too. Jason Robards though not as good as in some of his previous roles was great too.

'A Thousand Acres' is one of the best books I've ever read and one of the worst movies I've ever seen, so obviously something was lost in the adaptation. On-set reports claimed that the director was trying to change the story radically while stars Lange and Pfeiffer attempted to keep it closer to the book. The director seems to have won out.

It's really a shame, because you couldn't ask for a better cast to bring 'Acres' to life. Jason Robards is dead-on as Larry, the psychologically damaged patriarch, and Lange, Pfeiffer, and Leigh have great chemistry as the three sisters. But good actors need good lines, and the screenplay doesn't give them any. The approach taken by the writer and director toward adapting Jane Smiley's brilliant, Pulitzer-prize winning novel seems to have been to simply stick all the dramatic, important scenes together and leave out the nuances and character development that made the story so special.

In fairness, 'Acres' couldn't have been easy to adapt; it has more than enough scope to make a movie trilogy or an entire series of television. Perhaps it was a mistake, then, to try to keep the beginning, middle and end essentially the same as the book. This approach shows us all the effects and none of the causes. Especially confusing is the scant 105 minute running time, which is only slightly longer than your average Adam Sandler movie. If the director and studio had been willing to make this a 3-hour film, it might have had a chance. As it stands, the movie plays like a highlight reel of the book, and that's not enough to involve the viewer emotionally.

'A Thousand Acres' is a fantastic story, though the movie would try hard to convince you otherwise. Pick up the book and see for yourself.

I didn't actually have high hopes for this film because I had read some critics reviews when it first came out. I have not read the novel either. I thought the film was very well done and was moved by it. I agree that many of the supporting characters are underdeveloped but I could overlook that because I knew what was motivating the main characters. The two lead actresses are brilliant, especially Jessica Lange, who deserved an Oscar nomination for this. I loved the way her character slowly changed through the movie and Lange can evoke so much emotion in the viewer with something as small as a hand gesture. Pfieffer is strong as well although the story mainly revolves around Ginny and I don't really see why Pfieffer gets first billing here. I strongly recommend the film, espeically on dvd.