The Yellow Handkerchief

This film rewards you....it is worth every moment of your watching time. The beauty of its title, the sweetness and affirming image of a yellow handkerchief...like a yellow ribbon is about waiting,welcome and coming home. The Yellow Handkerchief is a road trip movie. It is a quiet, quirky ride around the roads of Louisiana. It plays like real people who make real reconciliations and whose lives keep us captured and moving and flowing forward. William Hurt gives a performance of a supreme subtlety and beauty. Kristen Stewart, Eddie Redmayne and Maria Bello breath life into their characters. It is so rare to find such a sensitive cast that really click...a great ensemble piece ...all with a quiet nobility. Watch it.

Road trips in American film have often been flamboyant metaphors—Easy Rider and Thelma and Louise come quickly to mind. The Yellow Handkerchief will not be remembered so readily given its low-key, Southern slow delivery. Yet it has a subtle power to inform the Louisiana bayou landscape with meaning as three strangers embark by auto for destinations barely known.

Brett Hanson (William Hurt) has just been released from 6 years in prison for manslaughter. Ignorant of this fact is Martine (Kristen Stewart), a fifteen year-old runaway, who invites Brett to ride with her and Gordy (Eddie Redmayne), who is a stranger and a strange young man having the advantage of a convertible and enough cash for a trip that might end up in New Orleans.

Like a European film, Handkerchief takes it time to reveal character, meet a conflict and climax, and settle down to its title, which is unsubtly tied to the handkerchief and a pop tune about an ex-convict "comin' home." Hurt, one of America's finest actors, brings gravity and melancholy to a role that requires sorrow and redemption to ride along with hope. I hope he receives a well-deserved Oscar nod and the grand prize—think of Jeff Bridges' win for Crazy Heart, a more histrionic part than Hurt's understated torture.

While I'm still trying to warm up to Kristen Stewart as anything but a vampire lover of little acting range beyond a hesitating delivery, Maria Bello as May, Brett's love interest, is plain persuasive as the one who tries to understand and work with the eccentricities of Brett.

Of course, Katrina as family wrecker is quietly in the background, and because this is a story of the search for family, or "belonging to something," the hurricane informs every grasp for lost love as the vanished twin towers might do. If you want slow exposition that offers character development of the first order, then ride along with these three misfits to find a bit of yourself in the journey.

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.

There are movies, such as this and many others, that sometimes don't appeal to people do to the slowness of it all. Nonetheless, I was surprised to see the low rating that it received. The Yellow Handkerchief tells the touching story of three broken individuals, each with their own troubled past and lingering issues; who share one thing in common: the need to escape. The entire plot is centred around a long car journey, in which Martine (Kristen Stewart) and Gordy (Eddie Redmayne)slowly unravvel the mystery of Brett Hanson (Willian Hurt) an unhappy man, recently released from his sentence in prison. The movie is an Indie movie, and it does appear to be rather slow. The script isn't as chatty or invasive as the blockbuster movies we're used to, and there is a lot of scenery. But regardless, the theme of the movie is easy for people to relate to. You don't have to be a convict, or an abandoned child to understand it- the entire story, is about making mistakes. And eventually, the message becomes clearer: that the people who forgive you, and offer you a second chance, are those who love you the most. There are so many different ways to see this movie, that I will point out that that's only my interpretation. I highly recommend this movie, but only if you're in the mood for a more symbolic movie rather than fast paced; action packed thrillers..

I really enjoyed this movie! The performances were subtle, layered, charming and fascinating and I'm surprised this movie didn't get noticed during the awards season. The raw landscapes, isolated buildings and the retro car they make there journey to a fresh start all make a hauntingly beautiful setting. The movie has a quiet confidence, artistic and a involving, star crossed story that for the first half leaves you in suspense, it follows Brett Hanson played by William Hurt who was recently released after 6 years from prison for manslaughter and hitches a ride to go back home to his wife with a young duo Martine and Gordy played Kristen Stewart in another great indie performance and she was stunning in this movie, Eddie Redmayne plays an awkward oddball but in a touching way and Maria Bello who isn't seen as much plays the wife May was excellent as always and man is she sexy. It just has a great story told in a real, beautiful way and is very relatable that makes it even more effective topped off with a very satisfying and touching ending that makes this an almost flawless indie. Highly recommended! More of a 4.5 out of 5 stars.