Square Dance (1987)

Gemma is 13 years old lives and with her grandpa in the country, she has for many years. One day her mother shows up, and wants to take Gemma to the city. Her mother is married now, and can... See full summary »

Director:

Daniel Petrie

Writers:

Alan Hines (screenplay by), Alan Hines (based upon his novel by the same name)

Stars:

Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Winona Ryder

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jason Robards	...	Dillard
Jane Alexander	...	Juanelle
Winona Ryder	...	Gemma
Rob Lowe	...	Rory
Deborah Richter	...	Gwen
Guich Koock	...	Frank
Elbert Lewis	...	Beecham
Charlotte Stanton	...	Aggie
J. David Moeller	...	Dub Mosley
Dixie Taylor	...	Dolores
Irma P. Hall	...	Preacher Dixon
Barbara Britt	...	Miss Lawson
Brad Leland	...	Drunk Cowboy
Dee Pyland	...	May Tompkins
Gwen Little	...	Doreen Hadley

Storyline

Gemma is 13 years old lives and with her grandpa in the country, she has for many years. One day her mother shows up, and wants to take Gemma to the city. Her mother is married now, and can provide for Gemma. Gemma goes with her mother. In the city she gets to know Rory, a mentally disabled boy. They play together, imagining that they are married.

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Plot Keywords:

sex scene | mother daughter relationship | grandfather granddaughter relationship | teenager | promiscuity | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 January 1988 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Filming Locations:

DeSoto, Texas, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$225,358

Company Credits

Production Co:

Island Pictures,NBC Productions,Pacific Arts Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was the opening night film at the 1987 Sundance Film Festival. Winona Ryder attended the premiere, which screened at the Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake City.

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Connections

Featured in Popcorn with Peter Travers: Rob Lowe on that Sex Tape, his Oscars Flop and Dancing 'Naked' in his Living Room (2015)

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Soundtracks

YOU LOOK SO GOOD IN LOVE
Written by Glen Ballard, Rory Bourke and Kerry Chater
Performed by George Strait

User Reviews

Hard to change

Square Dance is a film short on plot, but long on character, kind of like an O'Neil work of which one of the stars here Jason Robards, Jr., is most familiar. A lot of the hopelessness of Eugene O'Neil is prominent among these people.

If there's a lesson to be learned it's that we make our life choices early and it's hard to change. Jason Robards is a hardbitten old man who has a few acres of farm land on which he raises his granddaughter Winona Ryder who is a most naive young girl having drunk fully from the teachings of the fundamentalist church they belong to.

It was her mother who after she had Ryder left home. Now however Jane Alexander is married to Guich Koock who owns a service station and has come back for Ryder.

Jane and Gooch live in Fort Worth and the relative sophistication of Fort Worth is too much for Ryder. She forms a friendship with Rob Lowe who is cast in the most offbeat role of his career, a good looking but developmentally disabled young man. He has a gift for music and plays the violin strictly by ear.

Simply what happens is that Alexander and Ryder are just too different to get along. And her relationship with Lowe ends in a near tragedy.

In his recent memoir Rob Lowe says he took the part to extend his range and show he is more than capable of being the Eighties 'It' boy as he described himself. Square Dance may have been the first time he's attempted a broadening of the range, but in the years since he's not been a teen heart throb, he's met a number of acting challenges successfully.

Ryder was all innocence and shine in Square Dance which was her breakthrough part as well. In fact the whole ensemble performed well in this most unknown of Rob Lowe films.