Secrets

'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.

Having seen A 1,000 ACRES in a theater many years ago, for some reason, I blocked it out and had little recollection of it. Funny how we humans often block things out!

In fact, I wouldd like to categorize ACRES a "Human Flick". (As opposed to...you know what!) I like a movie that consistently refuses to follow your expectations. At least for me, from beginning to end, despite having seen it before, I just couldn't get it right! KUDOS to ACRES. Produced by, Based on a novel written by, Screenplay by, Directed by and Starring WOMEN! Yes, HERE, they do it ALL! And a job exquisitely well-done, I might add!

From the onset, it's obvious that patriarch Larry Cook (Jason Robards, Jr., in one of his last really meaty, showcase roles) together with his 3 daughters; Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh (Stunning ensemble performances) form an utterly dysfunctional family.

Apparently, the premature death of Larry's wife, the girls' mother, when they were all children, served as the defining event in all their lives, derailing each member and hurtling them into disparate realities...The operative word here being, "Apparently". Robards is inspired as the old-school, iron-fisted farmer, who, because of his age, is beginning to show a few cracks; starting to lose his grip.

Probably sensing this, the old-man pulls the rug out from everyone when he announces at a family dinner that he has decided to screw the government out of inheritance taxes on his choice 1,000 Acres by forming a corporation where each daughter is an equal partner. All his daughters are stunned, but the two eldest go along with the idea. Caroline, the youngest, who happens to be a lawyer, exercising professional caution, says she'd like to think it over a bit. The old man is beside himself, and sets off a chain of events. There is a very deftly handled undercurrent that adds a potent dose of tension throughout the film. I loved the ending. I imagine a lot of people simply did not!

ENJOY!/DISFRUTELA!

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.

Given the way the film begins - lots of slow tracking shots of the thousand acres - I expected this to be a dull but worthy effort only brightened by Michelle Pfeiffer (the reason I bought the tape). To an extent this was true - Pfeiffer's character was by far the most interesting. Her anger throughout, although utterly justified, carried an air of self-destruction and manipulation that made the story most watchable. There were points when I wondered if the film was going to miss any tragedian tricks (perhaps I mean soap opera headlines: death, abandonment, loss with no true deliverance, etc), but it was the believability of Pfeiffer and the ugly familiness achieved by the rest of the cast that carried it, showing peaks of humanity through the weight of the film's atmosphere.

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.