Nepotism is a feature in Hollywood and many careers owed less to talent and more to being born by “right” parents. However, in some cases genetic connections allowed for talents to be inherited and created powerful parent/child combinations on screen. On such example is mother/daughter team that appeared in Rambling Rose, 1991 period drama directed by Martha Coolidge.
The film is based on the eponymous novel by Calder Willingham, who also wrote the script. The protagonist and narrator is Wilcox “Buddy” Hillyear, who in 1971 returns to his father’s home in Georgia and starts to reminisce about events that happened while he was teenager in 1930s, during Great Depression. 13-year old Buddy (played by Lukas Haas) lives with his father (played by Robert Duval), a hotel manager; his independently wealthy mother (played by Diane Ladd) and two younger siblings. One day his father brings young woman called Rose (played by Laura Dern) to work as their servant. She was brought from Alabama where she has grown up in absolute poverty and had chequered past. Rose proves to be good around children, but almost immediately shows her different side while unsuccessfully trying to seduce her employer who nevertheless decides to give her another chance. The incident is witnessed by Buddy who later uses apparently nymphomaniac Rose to gain a little bit of sex education. Things in the household afterwards remain reasonably quiet, but Rose, who is beautiful and seductive, creates mayhem among men in Hillyears’ home town, leading to fights, arrests and all kinds of incidents. Buddy’s father, despite being kind-hearted, wants to fire Rose, but his wife would have none of it.
Calder Willingham was highly regarded as one of the best novelists of his generation, but he is also known as author of the script for some classic Hollywood films like Paths of Glory, The Graduate and Little Big Man. His talent is apparent in Rambling Rose, which features principles of old school Hollywood storytelling at its best – a seamless combination of drama, romantic comedy and coming-of-age story, coated with nostalgic depiction of almost fairytale American South. Director Martha Coolidge, on the other hand, successfully brought feminine touch to the story and confidently steered the plot from the farcical situations in the beginning to more darker content like issues of poverty, sex abuse and family tragedies later in the film, but she always managed to maintain cheerful, light-hearted and positive tone. This is achieved despite film being obviously adult and featuring some nudity. One scene, however, created a bit of controversy – the one in which 13-year old Buddy has his first sexual experience with an older Rose. The scene was later subject of censorship in United Kingdom. Despite this and somewhat weak plot, Rambling Rose is generally pleasant-looking and entertaining film. Superb, emotional but not overwhelming music score by Elmer Bernstein also helps with such impression.
The cast is excellent. Laura Dern is superb in the role of a woman who is attractive, charming, seductive but nevertheless maintains certain aura of innocence and evokes audience’s sympathy by projecting her sexuality as a force beyond her control. Dern is, just like in Wild at Heart a year ago, teamed with her real life mother Diane Ladd. Here Ladd plays slightly eccentric character of strong, independent woman who, despite knowingly and unknowingly oblivious to sexual tension under her roof, remains the moral anchor of the film. Robert Duvall is also great in the role of textbook Southern gentleman, something that actor who could easily do even in his sleep. Young Lukas Haas is also good in potentially tricky role that nevertheless helped him to, unlike so many child actors, continue his career into adulthood. Rambling Rose was well received by critics and even gained two Oscar nominations – Dern for Best Actress and Ladd for Best Supporting Actress, which was first such instance for mother and daughter in history of Academy Awards. Audience was less enthusiastic and Rambling Rose failed at the box office. Those who watch it today are more likely to be entertained than not, though.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
