The Tree

Realistic backgrounds and skillful acting belie the low-budget of this melodrama. However, the cheap incest-kidnap plot gives it away. Christopher Jordan is unexpectedly good as a psychotic G.I., obsessed with sexual memories of his dead sister, who returns to his lower-class Polish neighborhood to kidnap his niece. Eileen Heckert and George Rose are exceptionally good as neighbors that get caught up in this strange chain of events. The convoluted plot line, told in a series of flashbacks, is sensitively written and directed but is ultimately as confusing as it is impressive. Director Robert Guenette graduated from screenwriter (THE DEFECTOR) to director (THE TREE), but then went on to create the pseudo-documentary, THE MAN WHO SAW TOMORROW (1981) along with a smattering of semi-documentary TV movies, and ultimately drifted into making network TV specials.