By Reena Dutt
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 22, 1997

"Acres" breaks summer trend of bad flicks

Photo courtesy of Touchstone Pictures. Jessica Lange and Michelle Pfeiffer star in "A Thousand Acres." The movie is the story of two sisters and their rivalry.

Out of all the movies you saw this summer, count the ones that were good.

Me?

I saw maybe one or two.

Thank goodness it's over. "A Thousand Acres" has broken the summer's trend. And with leads Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange it's hard to see Touchstone lose money on this one.

"A Thousand Acres" is a story based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Jane Smiley. Written for the screen by Laura Jones and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, this movie is bound to do well among the female population of America. I don't want to categorize this movie as a girlie-flick, because I don't think it was meant to be. Even though the movie is based on three sisters and the problems they face after their father divides his land among them, the subplots create a film that anyone can relate to. Jealousy, rivalry and love are not the only things the siblings face, but other topics that are of importance to modern society, such as sexual abuse, become a concern to the characters as well.

Although the movie was pretty good on the whole, there were a couple problems I saw with it, the first one being that certain scenes seemed to almost reach the melodramatic category. The story covers topics that are sometimes difficult to discuss, but when over-acted, the topic doesn't hold on to the value that it once had. Sibling rivalry, for example, is a common issue and "A Thousand Acres" overplayed the topic. Some of the things the characters do in this movie are completely off the wall, but then on the other hand, it may be realistic enough to pass as being emotional.

The second thing that bothered me about the movie was the editing. I guess studying media arts for the last three years has made me a bit more critical on the post-production end of filmmaking. As I mentioned before, the subject matter seemed overly-emotional those overly-emotional segments are edited together caused it to be even less believable. The choppy cuts from one topic to the next caused the material to lose emotional value. The cuts to the next piece of information happened so quickly that it did not leave the time to soak in what just happened, causing the next scene to seem unbelievable. Of course, I may be the only one who felt that way, half the audience was sucked into the emotional segments of the film.

Maybe I'm just cold-blooded.

The third thing that brought ill thoughts to my mind were some of the subplots. A couple of them are blatantly overdone in Hollywood today.

Bad relationships, abuse, jealousy and cat fights, seem to be so common. Perhaps the popularity of soap operas are the cause of society's enjoyment in watching other people's lives go downhill. Who knows?

The subplots made the movie a mixture of "King Lear" and "Waiting to Exhale." Elements from both movies were obviously brought together in this film, the only difference is that the director broadened the subject matter so that it can relate to more people, at more times during the film.

Although you may feel as though I disliked the movie, I feel quite the opposite. There were a couple things that I thought were extremely beautiful and realistic as well. The photography director, Tak Fujimoto, did an exceptional job. Since the movie is based in Iowa, there are obviously going to be a lot of scenes of farmlands to set the mood of the film. Expansive farmlands create a feeling of openness and freedom in the film. At the same time the land doubles for confinement and claustrophobia.

The farm is the family's property and just as the family begins falling apart, so does their land.

Another thing about the cinematography that I found interesting was the stylistic qualities that were obviously apparent. Elements of Japanese cinematography were obviously apparent in the wide shots. These shots, silence with maybe one or two subjects in the scene, are typical Japanese film. The way the movie combines those with typical Hollywood elements, is just beautiful. They used the best of both techniques when filming "A Thousand Acres."

Not only was the cinematography great, but the location was well-researched before filming. The costuming was typical to a family living on a farm in Iowa. They were cheap enough to be realistically associated with the characters and their lifestyles. The homes they lived in were also typical for a well-off farm family. The makeup was well done Ñ natural and believable.

On the whole, I enjoyed the movie. There were segments that were disturbing, choppy and unrealistic, but it was balanced out with some terrific acting and behind-the-scenes work. In Hollywood where films are made for profits and not perfection, improvements are always possible. In any case, "A Thousand Acres" was entertaining and it gets its point across.

See it once, maybe not twice.