Shy People

This film seems at first pretentious and then very thoughtful.

It begins as a shallow magazine photographer and her daughter travel deep into the Bayou to research their family history. As they meet and establish relationships with their cousins, the story evolves into a truly haunting display of modern life vs. isolation, and the ways in which people relate to each other. Barbara Hershey is especially excellent as a tough but deeply loving widow.

This movie is for all the people who were enthralled by Runaway Train and wondered what happened to its director. Well, he eventually made Tango and Cash; which has its time and place, but he also made this bonafide work of greatness. It isn't a kinetically fierce work of cinema like Runaway Train, but there is so much else here for the viewer to mull over. A character driven story where none of the characters are wholly endearing, but all of them are vulnerable and forgiveable. While the movie grips you with its stark examination of colliding cultures, it never for a moment lets you forget that everyone involved is a real person.

Barbara Hershey was incredible as usual. This film will stay with you well after its over.

This is one of my favorite movies. Barbara Hershey is awesome. The portrayal of the bayou is very realistic, claustrophobic, eerie, and downright real. It's kind of a feminine Deliverance. I'm glad I saw this when it came out as it is hard to find now--not on DVD. Definitely worth it. Should have been up for a few Oscars. Why can't it be out on DVD? This is an important film also in that it shows there is more drama to the swamp as landscape that one would think with all the swamp creature movies out there. Yes, there really are creatures in the swamp, but there are also people, just like us. The brothers are also great and the cinematography is stupendous.

Barbara Hershey won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Andrei Konchalovsky's "Shy People". The movie portrays a magazine writer (Jill Clayburgh) and her daughter (Martha Plimpton) taking a trip to the Louisiana boondocks to meet a distant relative (Hershey). As the movie progresses, we learn not only about the relative's various kinds of superstitions, but also about the secrets that the great uncle held, and how they relate to some current rifts in the family.

Probably the movie's best aspect is how it dignifies country people. While making it clear that these folks have some backwards notions about things - namely that the deceased man is still watching - Konchalovsky never makes them look stupid. Also, we get to see rural Louisiana (although it may have changed in the past twenty years, especially after Hurricane Katrina).

If anything mildly disappointed me about the movie, it's that I didn't get to hear more about Cajun culture. But then again, it's probably best that the movie didn't lose its main focus. I would suspect that the one boy was right when he accused the oil companies.

All in all, worth seeing.