The Straight Story (1999; directed by David Lynch)

Movies create their own worlds, establish their own set of rules, and how well they work often comes from whether they explain their rules clearly, and whether they follow them.

Resist David Lynch's "The Straight Story" and it'll seem childish. Accept its rules, which it follows very consistently, and it's wonderful.

This slow and beautiful movie follows the story of Alvin Straight, an elderly man who learns that his estranged brother Lyle has had a stroke. Prideful, cantankerous, impaired in both vision and mobility, he can't drive a car, and he won't take a bus the hundreds of miles to where his brother lives. So, he builds a makeshift camper and hitches it to the back of his riding lawnmower.

And so, he sets out, at about ten miles an hour along the side of the highway. At night he camps under the stars, smoking cigars and living on hot dogs he cooks over his campfire. Sometimes he meets people along the way and helps them, and graciously accepts their help in return, but not to the extent of accepting a ride. His lawnmower is just fine for him. And one gets the impression that while he will not be stopped in his obligation to see his brother, he's damn well not going to hurry either. But Lynch, as always, is too reticent and gentlemanly to probe the inner lives of his characters. Their outsides are plenty for him.

There are certain givens in a David Lynch picture, and they are true here, even though this is far from a typical David Lynch movie. For one thing, it is gorgeous to look at, beautifully composed with wonderful use of color. Only Terrence Malick can make fields of grain look better than this. And, while the dialogue is ordinary, the timing of it is impeccable. The scene of Alvin dickering with a local storeowner to buy his grabber (the thing people use in stores to snag items from high shelves) is worthy of Bob and Ray, or Vic and Sade.

In What's Eating Gilbert Grape, it made such a difference that Darlene Cates actually was obese, that Gilbert's mother wasn't played by some skinny actress with padding on her. It is the same here, the movie wouldn't work if Richard Farnsworth, who plays Alvin, wasn't actually old and actually infirm. It makes it so much easier to accept everything else. And Sissy Spacek, who plays his daughter, Rose, is so touching that I wanted to climb up on the screen and give her a hug. Rose wants her father and his brother to reconcile, but the way Alvin goes about it obviously isn't what she had in mind.

Also Recommended:

By David Lynch: Lost Highway, Twin Peaks

With Sissy Spacek: Affliction


Best of 1999 / Best of the Decade

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