THE STRAIGHT STORY

THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999) ***1/2

Reviewed 10/21/99

What is unique about The Straight Story is that it is a 1999 American film aimed at adults but rated G. What is more surprising is that it is directed by David Lynch, who is associated with macabre sex-and-violence drenched films such as Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, and Lost Highway. The Straight Story is based on a true trek undertaken by then 73-year old Alvin Straight on a lawn mower across Iowa to Wisconsin to visit his brother, Lyle, who had had a stroke. In terms of plot, that is all there is to this slowly-paced movie, but in this case, these are positive attributes. Alvin has various encounters with other people along the way, and they feel real because they don't build on one another as you would expect in typically contrived Hollywood fashion. If they are linked, it is to speak about old age. Again, this is not done in any manufactured way as age cannot help but hang over Alvin in everything he does and how everyone looks at him. The film is unabashedly sentimental, but the sentiments feel true, except for one instance. Alvin tells a runaway teenager a parable about a bundle of sticks (also related in Akira Kurosawa's Ran) that has really hokey results. However, in another scene, Alvin's reminiscences with a fellow World War II veteran is more affecting than the whole of Saving Private Ryan. Richard Farnsworth gives the performance of a career as Alvin Straight.