User reviews

CRAZY IN ALABAMA / (1999) **1/2 (out of four)

By Blake French:

"Crazy in Alabama" is actually very well constructed; with good performances by a strong supporting cast, including David Morse ("The Green Mile"), Rod Steiger ("End of Days")" Meat Loaf Aday ("Fight Club"), and a compelling leading performance by director Antonio Banderas' wife, Melanie Griffith. Based on the novel by Mark Childress, who also wrote the screenplay, the movie suffers not from poor quality of filmmaking, but from the filmmakers trying to cram way to much material in the 111 minute movie.

The performers are hard at work here, but they can not possibly conquer the problems the production experiences due to the overcrowded script, which actually includes three separate stories of equal importance. The first details a woman named Lucille (Melanie Griffith), who dreams of becoming a famous actress in Hollywood after chopping off her cruel husband's head. She commits the murderous act to escape his overbearing clutches. "There are a lot of ways you can kill a person. There are fast ways, and there are slow ways. Chester was killin' me the slow way for thirteen years." Obviously Lucille preferred the fast way when it came to putting an end to her spouse.

The next story revolves around a civil right movement in Alabama. A young black teenager, Taylor Jackson (Louis Miller) is killed by a local prejudice sheriff named John Doggett (Meat Loaf Aday), who angrily pulls the innocent victim off a fence after he and his friends protest against the prohibition of swimming in the city pool. The late boy's parents attempt to lead a civil right crusade while trying to build a case to make Doggett pay for his crime.

Through another story is where these stories are linked. We see these events through the point of view of a young man's realization of life in the South without parents. This character, named Peejoe (Lucas Black), is the nephew of Lucille. She trustingly reveals all her secrets to Peejoe before she heads for Hollywood. He is also the only witness the violent act of Sheriff Doggett, placing him in the middle of the civil rights movement. Peejoe is not the center of the movie, however, and his character is completely unneeded and only adds additional complexity to the screenplay. He is simply an excuse to interlock the other two plots, and the attempt does not work.

The stories by themselves are very interesting, with inventive and original ideas and some thought-provoking messages. The film feels convincing in its development of the setting and atmosphere; the 1960's are captured with intrigue. Although it is his first feature film, Antonio Banderas, also a well-known actor starring 1999's Viking drama "The 13th Warrior," he should have realized the complexity of the plot as a negative contribution. There are movies in which multiple stories make the production unique and innovative, like "Traffic," "Magnolia," and "Pulp Fiction," but those movies blended their narratives together carefully, "Crazy in Alabama" only makes excuses for its actions.

If the writers had just stuck with the comedy instead of -- once again - laying down their heavy-handed Leftist cultural agenda - this would have been a very entertaining and fun film.

Certainly the "voice" of the head in the basket (you have to see this to know what I mean) was funny. With surround sound, it was particularly effective. All of sudden, you hear a voice come out of one of your rear speakers and it's this head coming from inside a box! It's funny, believe me.

So were other parts but then the film turns into another typical preaching about racism in the South and then gives - courtesy of Fannie Flagg playing a waitress - an anti-religious cheap shot or two. "Religious" people are usually referred to in film as "fanatics," as Flagg says here. People who espouse Left Wing causes, from the environment to abortion to PETA, are never called fanatics. I wonder why that is? Too bad the bias had to enter because it was a fun film to that point with Melanie Griffith, Lucas Black and David Morse all doing a fine job.

I wasn't sure what to expect of this film but afterwards I was glad I had watched it. Great performances, esp. from Meatloaf and Lucas Black. He's going to be a star when he's older! When I saw that Antonio Banderas had directed it, I thought "Oh, here's another one of those films where the actor/director has to put his wife in the leading role.. blah blah blah" but it was a really good film. Overall, I give it a 8/10.

Crazy in Alabama is one of those films that slipped through the cracks right before the new century, but it does have some assured direction from Antonio Banderas and a great performance by this then wife, Melanie Griffith.

Griffith plays her usual semi-ditz with a heart of gold, but with a southern accent this time. She's just murdered her husband, left her entire litter of children with her mother, and, in turn, forced out her two nephews from living under that roof. The film follows her journey to L.A. to become a movie star as her husband's decapitated head (which she carries in a hat box) taunts her from beyond the grave and her nephews get mixed up in southern, small town police brutality and race relations in the 1960s.

Because Crazy in Alabama is about two very different storylines, it can sometimes feel a bit tonally bizarre. One minute, you're watching Griffith nab a role on Bewitched as her husband's decapitated head taunts her and the next, you're seeing a young black boy murdered in cold blood by a crooked cop. It's an uneasy mix of comedy and drama that don't always go well together, but there are enough interesting ideas, good performances, and directorial flair to keep it entertaining.

Watched this because it has Antonio Banderas's directing his wife Melanie Griffith.

There are 2 ongoing stories set in the 60s in Alabama. An abused wife (Melanie Griffith) kills her husband and sets off to Hollywood to make it as an actress carrying her husband's head in a hatbox. Her nephew (Lucas Black) witnesses the local sheriff murder a young black boy after a dispute about using the local swimming pool. It's part feel good fantasy and civil rights commentary.

Melanie still looks young and slim and gives her signature ditzy performance. The filming is quite beautifully and colorfully done. Worth a watch.

... the first being a rather original piece of Southern Gothic - oppressed wife and mother of seven children poisons and decapitates husband in order to free herself to become a star in Hollywood, and the second a by-the-numbers Civil Rights tract. The first movie is completely daffy and charming, and the second is... just there. Although the Civil Rights angle is fairly well-acted, it's everything you've seen in at least 20 other movies -- it's like the Lucille story is the candy and this part is the medicine. As Lucille, Melanie Griffith is sooo adorable (which is quite a surprise for anyone who finds her babydoll voice more irritating than nails on a blackboard) and as for the others who appear here, it's just pleasure upon pleasure: the seldom-seen, ever-brittle Cathy Moriarity as Lucille's sister-in-law, Fannie Flagg as a sympathetic and much-married diner waitress, Robert Wagner as Lucille's Hollywood agent, Rod Steiger as the judge at Lucille's murder trial, and on and on. If the filmmakers had just stuck to making the Lucille story, this might have been a classic.

It's 1965 Alabama. Peejoe (Lucas Black) is 13 living a simple life until his eccentric aunt Lucille (Melanie Griffith) kills her abusive husband. She cuts off his head and takes it with her to Hollywood. Her brother Dove (David Morse) and wife Earlene (Cathy Moriarty) run the funeral home. They take in Peejoe and his brother. It's the time of the Civil Rights movement. Local black youth Taylor Jackson gets kicked out of the white public swimming pool and returns with a group of black youths for a peaceful sit-in. During a confrontation, Sheriff John Doggett (Meat Loaf) kills Taylor. Peejoe is the only witness.

This movie is oddly split in two with the two stories. I don't know the reason unless it's in the book. Melanie Griffith tries to be quirky but it wears down by the time she gets to Hollywood. The tone gets so far away from the more serious Alabama side that it becomes untethered. The Alabama side is deadly serious but Antonio Banderas may be a little loose with the directing. I would rather follow either one side or the other but following both is distracting.

One doesn't tend to expect much from an actor's directorial debut, especially from a relatively young actor and especially from one who seemed to have risen to fame at least partially by being, um, well, a studmuffin. One also typically expects a movie in which a husband directs his wife in a lead role to be fairly shallow or at least unbalanced. I crossed this movie off my list pretty early, expecting a forgettable Griffith-overload creation and little more.

Wrong! It's well-acted, engrossing, funny, and uplifting without feeling schmaltzy or (despite its farfetched plot) artificial. Every so often you want to rewind a bit, to hear some extra-cute bit of dialog again, or savor an especially well-done shot. (The camera work and sets, both indoor and outdoor, show unusual care, flash, and detail; this didn't dawn on me for most of the first hour but a rewind made it obvious.) Overall, 9 stars out of ten. But:

I wouldn't urge anyone to see this movie for Melanie Griffith. She does a fine job, but she's not what puts it over the top. As with quite a few recent films, I found that the performances of the extremely well-chosen supporting actors were a big part of what held the film together and made it so much more than it might have been. Most notable here is Rod Steiger as the judge, who captivates utterly; John Beasley as Nehemiah -- though his character could have stood a lot more development; and the perpetually underrated Meat Loaf as the slimy sheriff. Performances like Steiger's make you want to ransack the video store to rent all his older films.

Finally, I believe Lucas Black is destined for greatness. I couldn't watch him without remembering River Phoenix as Chris in "Stand By Me."

Why this film doesn't even rate a Maltin summary is beyond me.

This film attempts to cover two extremely serious topics: black uprising in the south during the sixties and a women who kills and runs away from a violent and dangerous husband. Unfortunately the movie's makers felt they had to dumb down this film by adding irrelevant humor. Just so you know, "I loved Life is Beautiful." In that film the humor was just as sad as the real actions. In "Crazy" the humor had little to do with the plot and seemed to only be included so that the viewer would not think too much about the serious, depressing, and wildly important issues the movie raised. The makers of this movie should be commended for attempted to address strong issues, but should be pitied for not having the guts to present them the way they must be presented.

I am in the process of trying to clean out an oversupply of VHS tapes and some of them are so easy to toss. Not this one. I had to sit down and watch it again and now I could only get rid of the VHS if I had it on DVD! I have not watched this movie in more than six years and it was "feel good" and "feel" all over again. David Morse is always wonderful. Lucas Black, Cathy Moriarty, Meat Loaf, Elizabeth Perkins, and many others are just a treat to watch. There's something about Melanie. I can't help liking her - even when I am finding fault with her. This movie really is strange with its incredibly serious (and gruesome) subject matter of a woman who methodically murders and decapitates her husband and then carries his head around with her - first in Tupperware and then in a very stylish hat box! The surprising part is that there is any plausibility at all, but it somehow existed for me. It had a strange feeling floating about it that was akin to "Forrest Gump" or "Nurse Betty", because it involved situations that were truly horrible, but everything kept working out for a sweet and naive character. The civil rights story was a very poignant counterpoint to the fantastic silliness of Lucille's odyssey. If I were a film student I may have sat there and criticized the way things came together, but I just watched it with an untrained eye, so it was fine. I certainly would have made the connection about a freedom theme even if they hadn't come out and stated it in the end. No one says a story has to be believable or plausible for it to work. This did work. I laughed a lot when I least expected to.

Nice surprise. Mr. Bandera's first movie as film director was a true surprise. Thanks to his "training" with the Spanish Almodovar, he seems to have learned what to do as good film director. He has presented a piece of "America" through the eyes of a young boy, innocent as Europeans are in dealing with this country. Melanie Griffith at her best.

The trouble with most Melanie Griffith vehicles-and for some reason I'm excruciatingly aware of the number of them I've seen- is that you're only seeing one character, ever, and not a very good or memorable one at that. Ms. Griffith should be at the very center of a firestorm of debate on what's wrong with Hollywood, and the principal lesson we can learn from movies like this one is that Hollywood is lazy. Melanie Griffith is not only not a very good actress, she is so abominably bad and mind-numbingly predictable in her infantile reactions and sex-kitten phrasings that she should never have been seen aside from her appearances in Body Double and Something Wild, in which the characters she played were simply tailored to fit her deficient persona. For anyone who still disagrees, let me put it this way. If you were to remove the mannerisms, vocalizations, and elements of style that Ms. Griffith has simply lifted from Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe, you would not have enough actor left to fill the shoes of a crowd-scene extra. Yet the Hollywood system somehow works to keep this Cleopatra's barge afloat, long after it should have run aground. But, since she's who she is, however unfortunate that may be for all of us, we'll go on seeing her again and again, silicon-blown lips and breasts and, oh, what's the use? This movie is really parts of two movies that never really come together, and that wouldn't really be able to stand up by themselves either. We have a typical Hollywood construct, 60's racist Alabama, intercut with a retail clerk's dream of ascendance to stardom: kill your abusive husband, steal a car, by a hat for the hatbox, (paste classical reference here) sweet-talk a cop out of holding you in jail--Banderas probably knows so little about police procedure in this country that he actually thought the hatbox in a stolen vehicle would not be checked-- win big in Las Vegas, audition for Bewitched, and become a star. Maybe we're supposed to remember here that Liz Montgomery also played Lizzie Borden in a TV movie several years after Bewitched tanked and she was renovating her image as a Now woman. Regardless, the classification of this film as "comedy-drama" should have been the tip-off that whenever Ms Griffith found herself in trouble, the baby-doll would pop out, coo sickeningly, and her character would survive for yet another stunning costume change. Now, the "serious" side of this movie flounders like the fully dressed blacks diving into the pool--we're supposed to think here of baptism, even before we see the image of the little boy floating in the crucifixion pose--and we are also supposed to swallow yet another screenwriter's slam-dunk of a terribly complex and many-sided situation, that of racial injustices of sixties Alabama. I remember sitting in an editing room, telling my working partner I'd just come back from Alabama, where my father is buried. "F--- Alabama!" she said. She was from New York, and movies like this were her entire experience of the south. So, here we are, in the middle of this dreadful hash: a dream of becoming a star, which, oddly enough, is played by an actor who has expressed in interviews this same desire, over and over again: to be a star, even tho she is incapable of acting. Then we have the Hollywood construct of a mythical, deeply stereotyped world: racist South, lustful cop, get-rich Las Vegas, and star-studded Hollywood. And to top it all off, we have A. Banderas, who, come to think of it, may actually be the closest thing to a male counterpart to Melanie Griffith you're liable to find. He's fulfilling his dream of coming to America, becoming a star in something other than Almodovar films (the worst of which was much better than this) and finally, directing. Every boy's Hollywood dream. Like Griffith, he seems to think that talent or ability should have nothing to do with it. And if this movie had been anything like the hit it was billed as in the trailers, He would have been right. But, somehow, over and over again, that self-referencing Hollywood myth simply breaks down, over and over again. What we have, then, is shoddy "stars" that no one really wants to see, like Melanie Griffith, shoddy directing, that we could live without, like Banderas,' and shoddy films, that no one really wanted to see, playing three times a day on Bravo, like this one. Do yourself a favor, the next time this one's on: Change the channel.

Crazy In alabama is one of the best movies of the year. Antonio Banderas did an awesome job as a director and Melanie Griffith is outrageous. It truly reveals the feelings of the 50s, the quest for freedom , and the insanity of racism.

The film is very amusing. I enjoy the pictures ok alabama or other states. The photography is taken care over. Bravo for the casting with amazing actors (rod steiger, meat loaf ...). The acting of melanie griffith is so funny... A good moment

Having read the book and loving it, I was looking forward to seeing this film. Overall, the film was very faithful to the novel. The acting was excellent but I did have reservations.

While Melanie Griffith would normally have been perfect for wacky Aunt Lucille, she was NOT 34 years old as the radio announcer said on the getaway car radio. If they acknowledged this fact, and actually STATED somehow that Lucille was 40 years old, "no spring chicken," or whatever, the credibility gap would not have been so wide.

Additionally, in the book it was very clear that Lucille named her 7 children after movie stars: Rock for Rock Hudson, Sandra for Sandra Dee, etc. It was virtually lost in the movie. And why were the kids almost ALL the same age (7 or 8). One or two should have been 12 or 13, given Ms. Griffith's age.

And I was totally put off by the fact that Lucille got her BIG BREAK by just sending in her head shot to the producers of "Bewitched," and they went on and on about how wonderful she looked. Eh???????????? Studios get thousands of head shots from Hollywood hopefuls, and frankly her photos were pretty pathetic. In the book, a vacationing talent scout saw Lucille in a community theatre production of "The Sound of Music" and saw some Star Quality in her and invited her to come look him up if she ever got to Hollywood. Now THAT would've made a lot more sense and it would have been far more BELIEVABLE!!!!!!!

Other than those points, I found everyone's acting wonderful, and Banderas did a fine job of directing. And why were some of the critics so "CONFUSED" by the switching back and forth of the two stories? Duh!!! Didn't these people go to high school or college? It wasn't confusing to us poor dumb SOBs who paid for our tickets!

Anyway, it's far from a great movie. But it sure is far better than some of the negative reviews from the "experts."

The plot was fresh and funny; the supporting characters were excellent (particularly David Morse and Lucas Black); the adaptation kept the essence of Mark Childress' book. So why didn't the movie work? Perhaps Melanie Griffith should avoid dark hair; it makes her look sick and old and malnourished. Perhaps subtleties of expression or movement are lost on a director who's "not from around here" and doesn't appreciate "here" anyway. At any rate, the book was a buoyant look at absurdity arising from tragedy and an affirmation that good will triumph over evil, eventually, although perhaps not in the way we'd have expected. The film falls flat.

I was amazed that IMDB voters gave this film a higher rating than "Crimes of the Heart," which had a similar plot (Babe Botrell shoots and hospitalizes philandering husband, uses the "he needed killing" defense; her entire family's reaction makes up the action). "Crimes of the Heart" was hilariously funny; "Crazy in Alabama" might have been but wasn't.

I had seen the trailers several times for this movie before running across it in the video store looking through the titles for something I had not seen. After seeing it, I wondered why I had not heard more of it. The trailers did not give away anything about this wonderfully written script. Antonio Banderas did a great job in direction, but Lucas Black stole the show with his acting. After thinking he was masterful in "Sling Blade," it was great seeing him get another role to show off his talents. Steiger was perfect for the role, although anyone could have played the Robert Wagner role. However, seeing such big stars playing cameos, should tell you that the script was a great read. I don't want to give you any insight into the story line, because it is so well interwoven that it has to be seen to understand. It gets nicely tied up in the end from a small statement from Lucas Black. Melody Griffith has not always been a favorite of mine, mostly because she does always pick roles that she fits, but in this one, I cannot imagine anyone else fitting the role. She did an excellent job. I say that, because there were parts where I forgot it was her, and got caught up in the actual character she was playing.

This is one that is definitely worth a look. The overtones of the era are played nicely and figure greatly in the story line. Why it was overlooked when the big awards came out, I have no idea. This one should have won something. It is that good.

I wanted to give this film 6 and a half out of 10....but as the voting system only allows whole numbers... it got a six.This is a black comedy with plenty of food for thought....interweaving the drama of prejudice, wife abuse, freedom and the difference between(to quote a line from the film) "justice and being just".....OK....the plot is generally preposterous;but because of good directing and fine acting this is an entertaining picture.The stars that shine are the lead actress, the actors playing her nephew, the sheriff and her chauffeur. Would you believe that Robert Wagner is 70?! I hope I look as good as that at his age.....and Rod Steiger is the great American ham actor as the judge...definitely worth renting this film from the video shop!

In 1960s Alabama, corrupt sheriff Meat Loaf kills a Black boy by accident, and no one says boo. Meanwhile, Melanie Griffith cuts off her husband's head with a carving knife and goes off to appear on BEWITCHED before she winds up on trial before Rod Steiger.

I like to think that this is a pro-civil rights movie, showing how absurd attitudes were in Alabama, and how they had to change. You can make that case, I suppose, and director Antonio Banderas' feature directorial feature won a couple of awards. So did his wife, Miss Griffith, for her work here. She walked away with a Razzie.

Given that Mark Childress wrote the novel it was based on as well as the screenplay, it should be consistent in the subtext. I suppose the conclusion is that Alabama is no place to live for sane people. I mean in the 1960s, of course.

I loved this film.

I am not normally a fan of Melanie Griffith, but she is superb as the Southern Belle, Lucille.

Antonio Banderas does a brilliant job behind the camera, telling two stories both about the difference between Justice and what is Just.

Rod Steiger is superb in his cameo role as the judge.

More than I expected from a "husband directing wife" movie.

A little uneven though; the two stories flip-flopped with no apparent tie, even though you knew there would eventually be one; once it came it was not entirely satisfying. In the meantime, I kept thinking, "this movie is about the kid (peejoe), not about Melanie Griffith, why do they keep interrupting it with her disjointed scenes?"

A great cast gives good performances. I particularly liked the kid, Lucas Black ("Sling Blade"), David Morse...and look for an almost unrecognizable Richard Schiff ("The West Wing") as the limo driver, Norman.

Other than the odd blending of the stories, Banderas (director) didn't get in the way at all (this is a compliment). I hope he tries again. Actually, as a Spaniard, I was surprised how well (I'm guessing, since I'm not American either) he was able to push some American emotional buttons; Martin Luther King Jr. American-flag scene-cut and all.

I wish the black characters were more deeply developed.