Review of Housekeeping (1987) by Stuart K — 27 May 2009
Bill Forsyth had found great success with Gregory's Girl (1981) and Local Hero (1983). Here, he went to America, with an adaptation of Marilynne Robinson's 1981 bestseller, the result is a touching dramedy, which is what audiences had come to expect from Forsyth at the time.
It's not perfect, but that's the point. Set in the town of Fingerbone, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest in the 1950's, it focuses on two sisters, Ruthie (Sara Walker) and Lucille (Andrea Burchill), who are recently orphaned when their mother drives a car off a cliff, they are in care with their great Aunts, until their mother's sister, Aunt Sylvie (Christine Lahti), turns out.
Sylvie is an eccentric, collecting newspapers and tin cans around the house, and is very much a free spirit, which doesn't go down well with the townspeople, and they try to intervene whenever possible.
It's a quiet and poetic sort of film, (Terrence Malick would have killed to have made this), but it does have a dark undercurrant to it, but it does show what could have been with Bill Forsyth's career, sadly, it didn't turn out the way it should have for him.
:(.
This review of Housekeeping (1987) was written by Stuart K on 27 May 2009.
Housekeeping has generally received positive reviews.
Was this review helpful?
