The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Udayan Prasad

Writers:

Pete Hamill (story) and
Erin Dignam (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 April 2009 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

A road trip through Louisiana transforms three strangers who were originally brought together by their respective feelings of loneliness.

Plot Keywords:

Three Word Title

Cast

William Hurt
Maria Bello	...	May
Kristen Stewart	...	Martine
Eddie Redmayne	...	Gordy
Emmanuel Cohn	...	Doctor
Nurith Cohn	...	Nurse
Veronica Russell	...	Warden Genaro
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Eric F. Adams	...	Bank Accessor
Barbara Balentine	...	Grocery store customer
Ross Britz	...	Blonde's Friend
Lisha Brock	...	Waitress
Victor Brunette	...	Chippy White
Grover Coulson	...	Farnsworth
Lucy Faust	...	Snotty girl in diner
Aimee Spring Fortier	...	Teenage mother
Ross Francis	...	Boyfriend
Jeff Galpin	...	Cop #2
Douglas M. Griffin	...	Cop
Michael D. Kennedy	...	Tony Freckles
Rebecca Newman	...	Ilene
Bello Nock	...	Bello Nock
Holly O'Quin	...	Female nurse
Ashlynn Ross	...	Delivery Girl
Shayne Tingle	...	Ferry Driver
John Gregory Willard	...	Blonde
Dawna Williams	...	Waitress

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS | SDDS

Filming Locations:

Morgan City, Louisiana, USA

Company:

Arthur Cohn Productions

Movie Connections:

Remake of Shiawase no kiiroi hankachi (1977)

When slow is good, and actors shine

A perfect crescendo. During an admittedly slow first half of the film, the audience is drawn in to the actors and the cajun background, its lush greenery and its languid place in Americana.

The actors hold up brilliantly at this pace -- William Hurt is a standout and a more-than-worthwhile Oscar candidate as the sullen, "ghost"-like ex-con and Eddie Redmayne jumps to the fore as a bizarre, overgrown child. The scenery and the pull of post-Katrina New Orleans is powerful, forcing personal choices and sticking in the back of our minds.

Then, when the action turns, and the plot suddenly speeds forward for the latter half of the movie, the viewer has already been drawn so deep inside these rich, pained characters and the twisted swampland that its emotional force, punctuated by minute changes in Hurt's eyes, knowingly elicits empathy and sympathy.

The force of the movie is the slowness, the languid pace that draws the viewer in, and the acting, as good an ensemble as anything that I've viewed this year. It is slow, but slow can be good, good as a cajun conversation.