1997-TV
** of ****
Length: 92 minutes
Directed by Lloyd Kramer
Writing by Connie May Fowler
Cast:
Ellen Barkin: Gloria Marie Jackson
Tina Majorino: Avocet Abigail "Bird" Jackson
Julia Stiles: Phoebe Jackson
Oprah Winfrey: Miss Zora
John Savage: Billy Jackson
William Lee Scott: Hank Jackson
Burt Young: Mr. Ippolito
Louis Crugnali: L.J. Ippolito
of their respective owners.
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This story is set in rural northern Florida during the mid 1960s.
Billy, the alcoholic father, regrets that his music career never went anywhere. The sounds that come with moonrise are the spousal arguing and beating. The wife he beats, Gloria Marie, is illiterate and also an alcoholic. They have a son, Hank, who is old enough to have moved away. Julia plays the teen aged Phoebe who has started to distance herself emotionally from her parents, but must remain because of her youth and to protect her sister. Bird is the focal character of the story. She is nine years old, and must grow up in an environment filled with poverty, alcoholism, and violence. Billy and Bird have a loving father daughter relationship on that rare occasion when he is sober. Bird frequently hears the abuse, but after her father realizes that his baby girl is watching him hit and choke the mother, he gets into the car, drives away and shoots himself. Gloria takes her two daughters, and moves into a trailer on the property of the motel at which she starts working. The mother begins getting more abusive to the girls then their father ever was. To have something to do while avoiding her mother, Bird visits the mysterious woman Miss Zora. Miss Zora befriends Bird and opportunities arrive for all parties to heal in different ways. The power of love for a daughter forces Gloria and Miss Zora to deal with each other and their own demons.
In the book, the wife is much more guilty of the original problems, and the little girl has a romantic fancy for Jesus, but in this made for TV and the PMS network (lifetime) version, the overall story gets edited a might bit.
Connie May Fowler wrote her novel about a screwed up family in rural northern Florida in the '60s. Her adaptation to TV does leave something to be desired, but it is still a story with power.
A well written story of how being resilient in a life of poverty and abuse can lead to survival. Connie May Fowler did not have to be creative in penning this story. The book is based on her life, and that's why the little girl is the narrator. The anger and the bite come through in her words, but not in any one word. This girl was so effected as a youth, she had a great deal of difficulty speaking. Her real escape was, like many authors, through reading and writing.
This movie would have bombed at the box office simply because of it's lack of action, and it's limited story. The characters are done in depth and leave you feeling for all of them. These people seem real to the viewer because they were real to the author. There are many scenes here that are very emotional.
The tone of the movie is set from the beginning when you learn about Gloria's choice to name her daughters after birds. "If we were named for something with wings, then maybe we'd be able to fly above the crap in our lives." This is a simple and beautiful yet painful story of love in a messed up family as it goes through life with loss and renewal. The score was nothing major, but it's sad and longing mood did contribute to the movie.
Ellen Barkin better have won some kind of award for this job. She doesn't have a scene that isn't intense in some way. She anchors a solid cast and commands your attention. From victim to abuser through everything in between except normalcy, she does it.