Run the Wild Fields

This film held my interest to the very end with fine performances by Joanne Whalley, Sean Patrick Flanery, Alexa Vega, and Cotter Smith. It reminded me of two other excellent films. The movie is narrated by the young daughter, Opal, but in retrospect using her now grown up voice, similar to Scout, Gregory Peck's daughter in To Kill a Mockingbird, and Opal's character is nearly as appealing. Also this film reminds me of Places in the Heart, with a "single woman" trying to manage a farm without her husband present and necessarily bringing people together to save the farm. This film has Flanery as Tom the drifter invited to help Joanne Whalley with the farm, as Danny Glover and John Malkovich helped Sally Field in Places in the Heart.

Having identified those similarities, the film stands well on its own and I appreciated the dramatic tension of several plot lines which did resolve in less predictable ways, and left me feeling better about the movie watching experience by avoiding predictable plot development. I won't "spoil" the movie by disclosing the specific plot issues in this review. The movie allowed me to appreciate the lead characters as I got to know them better in the events of the film. I would rate this one 8 out of 10 and recommend it with enthusiasm.

From the carefully crafted script to the touching performances by Sean Patrick Flanery, Joanne Whalley and Alexa Vega, the amount of care taken by the filmmakers is evident to even the casual viewer. I first saw this movie on Showtime, where it hooked me in while channel-surfing. I couldn't believe it wasn't a feature (I just recently rented it again after seeing it on the shelf in Blockbuster). Don't waste your money on the hype - rent this quiet, stirring film and be swept away.

Sean Patrick Flannery is reserved as a drifter who comes to a small town looking for work. Though the town believes he is a coward since he is not in the War, a young girl, who's mother has hired him to help run the farm now that her husband has disappeared in the War, finds the drifter fascinating and is torn as to whether she wants her father to return at all. The leads are fine and this is a quick watch without any heavy impact.

A woman in North Carolina (Joanne Whalley) awaits the return of her husband from the Pacific, who's missing in action. She hires a disreputable transient to work the farm (Sean Patrick Flanery) and he bonds with her 10 years-old daughter (Alexa PenaVega).

"Run the Wild Fields" (2000) was based on a play and contains elements of films like "Of Mice and Men," "Places in the Heart," "The Man in the Moon" and "Lawn Dogs." The story has room to breathe as it fleshes-out the characters and refuses to go over-the-top, which works for me. There is one cliched scene, but the flick makes up for it with an unexpected turn.

It runs 1 hour, 41 minutes, and was shot north of Toronto in Whitchurch-Stouffville.

GRADE: A-

Simply put, this is a well done film full of characters you come to care about. Joanne Whalley is perfect in this and one of the best roles I have ever seen her in. She is quite believable as a N. Carolina mother. These are the types of roles she's most brilliant at. As the mysterious drifter, Tom, Sean Patrick Flanery, too, stands out in a role that could easily be over-played. The drifter's background is slowly leaked out through the course of the movie, keeping you interesting and wanting to know more about him and those that come to care for him. Alexa Vega was also brilliantly cast in a very mature role for a young actor. While the ending was not what I would have liked (just the romantic in me talking) and the film's plot theme has been done many times before in other films, it doesn't spoil the overall goodness of this movie.