Plenty

Starring:Meryl Streep, Charles Dance, Tracey Ullman, John Gielgud, Sting, Ian McKellen, Sam Neill, Burt Kwouk, AndrÃ© Maranne, Pik Sen Lim, Ian Wallace, Tristram Jellinek, Peter Forbes-Robertson, Hugo De Vernier, James Taylor (II), Andy de la Tour, Hugh Laurie, Mitch Davies (II), Christopher Fairbank, Lindsay Ingram
Director: Fred Schepisi
Studio: Republic Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Description

From the producers of the smash hit SOUL FOOD comes HAV PLENTY, a hilarious look at love and sex in the '90s that charmed audiences and critics alike. For struggling novelist Lee Plenty, the only thing sorrier than his writing career is his love life. That is, until Lee's old college friend, Havilland, invites him to her home to celebrate New Year's Eve. Before long, Lee finds himself surrounded by three gorgeous women: Havilland, her uninhibited best friend, and her affection-starved sister. It looks like Lee's in for a weekend filled with plenty of laughter, love, and surprises. A hit soundtrack featuring Babyface & Des'ree, Erykah Badu, SWV, and Absolute energizes this fresh and funny romp!

Customer Reviews:

What a Relief...........2007-01-31

Finally, a witty, funny love film about black people in affluent, college educated circles. The film would have sold better if not for the absence of guns, broken English, at least one pimp, saggy clothes, homicides, and booty-shaking. But...that's okay (sigh), I loved it. Unfortunately, very few people want to pay $8.00 to $12.00 to see films about educated blacks; no shock value.

Corney but funny.......2007-01-19

The movie was really corney but in a funny sort of way.

Ugh.......2006-08-22

I rented this movie and believe me when I say I cried.....because I wanted a refund. I hated it. Was boring and characters had no depth.

One Of The Greatest Movies I Have Seen.......2006-06-24

I have been looking for this DVD in England where i live, it fisrt sparked my interest whilst watching television. And I was unsuccessfull for some time and then i ordered from america. Even though i do not have multi region DVD player i am glad to finally own a copy of this movie. I would suggest that if you can see this movie, do.

Nice movie that is down to earth.......2006-05-24

I first saw this movie on cable and enjoyed the relevance of it to my own life. I bought the movie on cassette and it was really enjoyable to me when I was going through a time where I have down on my luck and down on love. The movie for me was good in its light comedy and of the variety of issues that each character had. I can understand how some people may not like the fact that this is a low budget movie, and some elements of the acting could have been done better. Yet, the soundtrack was nice and the story is realistic in how some people go about denying their feelings or their flaws. I would recommend this love story to anyone who is tired of the gangster/got to get of the ghetto movies.

Average customer rating:

captures 2003 America
A Wim Wenders Winner
'Angst and Alienation in America'
A German director's reconcilation with 9/11

Land of Plenty
Starring: Michelle Williams , John Diehl , Shaun Toub , Wendell Pierce , and Richard Edson
Director: Wim Wenders
Manufacturer: Ifc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000HC2M20
Release Date: 2006-10-10

Description

A darkly humorous and powerful exploration of post-9/11 America. -OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2004 Toronto Film Festival -Films with 9/11 subject matter timely in marketplace: Oliver Stone's World Trade Center and United 93 (DVD 9-5-2006)

Customer Reviews:

captures 2003 America.......2007-05-13

A little disorienting at first, this movie is such a rich tapestry with several multidimensional characters that one can't be certain where it's taking us. The America never seen in American films (except by Haskell Wexler) defines post-9/11 bewilderment within the context of poverty, legitimate faith, and paranoia. A second viewing--during the director's commentary--reveals that (Leonard Maltin's review to the contrary) the narrative structure is tight.

The central male character conjures up the anomie of the leads in THE PARALLAX VIEW, TAXI DRIVER, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. The Christian heroine is a good and decent young woman, played with freshness and sincerity and not one whiff of cynicism. The black minister, performed by one of THE WIRE's wittier regulars, offers a more true-to-life representation of black Americans' core values than almost ever reaches American TV or movie screens, and without treacle or bombastics. One regrets the absence of close-ups in the cameo by Gloria (TITANIC, INVISIBLE MAN) Stuart, but her scene is delightful.

In his commentary, Wenders repeatedly extols the use of DVD cameras that allowed him to complete 60 or 70 set-ups a day in a 16-day shoot. The cinematography (all hand-held) is astonishingly beautiful. And Wenders rightly praises his set designer who had only $20,000 to work with and yet came in under budget!

Doubtless, the German director's background affords him the distance with which to comment so cogently on America a couple of months after Bush declared the invasion of Iraq a success. With its documentary feel and non-mainstream perspective, LAND OF PLENTY will increase in value over the years, as a photo album of conditions and attitudes we can only hope will continue to heal.

A Wim Wenders Winner.......2007-04-13

There's a lot to be said for a film that makes profound statements about the 9/11 attacks and its effects on Vietnam vets. Most of us were probably too shocked inside our own little bubble to realize the impact these men felt when exploding planes collapsed the twin towers. But director Wim Wenders (DON'T COME KNOCKING) pulls it off thanks to a fairly good script and even better acting by lead actors John Diehl and Michelle Williams.

Never having seen Diehl in a leading role, this movie shows he's got some serious chops and can act with the best Hollywood has to offer. Equally Michelle Williams pulls off a stunningly excellent performance as the worldly but loving niece who helps Diehl discover himself all over again.

The story ...

Paul (John Diehl) is a Vietnam vet living in Los Angeles. He lives in a fantasy world all his own, believing that he's helping with national security by tracking suspicious looking people with his surveillance tricked-out van. He operates a camera that comes out of the van's sunroof and records activity around town.

Michelle (Michelle Williams, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) is returning from Tel Aviv after years away from the States. Her mother passed away and she's trying to hook up with her last surviving relative in America: Paul. Working at a mission for the poor, she befriends many of its patrons and meets up with a withdrawn Arab-looking gentleman named Hassan (Shaun Taub, CRASH) who also happens to be one of Paul's prime suspects.

Paul witnesses Hassan hauling boxes of borax and quickly learns that it is an ingredient for certain bomb materials. On high alert, Paul records everything Hassan does. This brings him closer to his niece, Michelle. But Hassan lives on the street and is eventually shot to death right in front of Paul, making him believe that someone knocked him off for sinister reasons.

Michelle is beset with grief about Hassan's death and searches for one of his family members. Eventually finding one near Death Valley, she convinces Paul to drive her and the body to Hassan's brother for burial. Paul agrees in the hopes of gaining more information about who Hassan was and what he was up to.

As the nexus between Paul's old Vietnam life and the new one that awaits him with Michelle begins to culminate, we see him battling bad dreams of his time in Southeast Asia but being aided and comforted by Michelle and, to his surprise, by Hassan's death and Hassan's brother.

We quickly learn that Paul went down a bad trail after the 9/11 attacks, his mind sparking up old memories in order to protect itself. He lives in his van, which is his life-connection to the world now. But that will change once Michelle teaches him how to trust again.

The film is touching if sometimes a bit heavy-handed in the dialogue department. We're sometimes forcibly given rather trite information about the homeless and war, but this is easily overlooked thanks to the able acting of its two main characters.

'Angst and Alienation in America'.......2006-11-22

LAND OF PLENTY is nowhere near as powerful a title for this brilliant Wim Wenders film as the original working title, ANGST AND ALIENATION IN AMERICA. This is another Wim Wenders wonder of filmmaking, a quiet little powerhouse of a movie that should be required viewing for all of us. Wenders wrote this moving piece with assistance from Scott Derrickson and Michael Meredith and directs a sterling cast in an exploration of the American psyche post 9/11, and few writer/directors could have keener insight into the state of mind of a country at odds with itself and the rest of the world.

Lana (Michelle Williams) is flying back to the US after a two-year stay on the West Bank. She is the daughter of missionaries, having lived her life in Africa and other missionary fields and she is flying home after her mother's death to deliver a letter to her uncle Paul (John Diehl), a damaged Vietnam vet who has cut himself off from his family and the rest of life and in response to 9/11, his mind being obsessed with tracking Sleeper Cells to destroy terrorists in his own homemade surveillance van. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Lana is met by Henry (Wendell Pierce) who is a pastor who runs a mission for the homeless of Los Angeles and provides Lana with a bleak room and a job in the kitchen of the mission. Lana is full of praise for God for all things, the optimistic evangelical girl who fails to recognize evil. One member of the mission bunkhouse is a Pakistani Hassan (Shaun Toub) whose garments and fixation on boxes of Borax alerts Paul to his possible involvement as a terrorist.

Lana contacts Paul, desires to connect with him, but Paul is aloof, obsessed with his 'mission' to ferret out terrorists. When Hassan is the victim of a drive-by shooting Lana is devastated at the loss of a human being while Paul is convinced Hassan was hit by a larger organization. Paul with his colleague Jimmy (Richard Edson) discover Hassan has a brother who lives in Trona (outside of Death Valley). Together Lana and Paul transport the corpse of Hassan to his brother Youssef (Bernard White) who lives in a hut in Trona: Lana is committed to doing the right thing, Paul sees an entry into more evidence for evil to quash. While Lana is warmly entertained by Youssef, Paul investigates the town and finds that the Borax boxes of Hassan's business were innocent means of washing carpets imported from Pakistan. The coming together of Youssef, Lana, and Paul finally achieves meaning when Paul reads the letter from his sister, Lana's mother, who somehow manages to erase all lines of prejudice, bigotry, religious differences, misunderstanding - finally giving breathing room to the damaged souls of the brotherhood of man the three represent.

Wenders manages to bathe his story in the light of reality yet maintain an unprejudiced stance in moving his characters through their paths of revelation. The camera wanders a bit, the music blends perhaps too heavily, and the pieces of the puzzle don't always fit together - much like life doesn't always fall into place the way we expect. But there is much to learn from Wenders' wisdom and with the aid of perfect performances from Michelle Williams, John Diehl, and Wendell Pierce he has created an indelible work. A fine film for us all to ponder. Grady Harp, November 06

A German director's reconcilation with 9/11.......2006-10-13

Wim Wenders has long had a love affair with America. He is particularly drawn to desolate places in the west and too enamored (imo) with American pop music. I'll get the flaws off my chest right away: too much pop music, or just over-musicked, and this is my major pet peeve in movies generally. Silence can often accomplish so much more. Second flaw is that it just skirts sentimentality.

John Diehl and Michelle Williams were absolutelty wonderful. Diehl is a dead-ringer for John Sayles but I got used to it. He is a 55-ish Vietnam vet who was exposed to Agent Orange and he is still suffering from PTSD. He is obsessed with the threat of more terrorism and he is so off-the-wall sometimes it is funny but he has no notion of how he must seem to others and he has little humor inside him. He is a patriot to his bones and drives around in his home-made detection and surveillance van aided by his somewhat goofy sidekick Richard Edson (who I like so much and am pleased he is in the movie).

Diehl is on the lookout for anything odd or untoward that might in any realm of rational thought possibly be a threat to America. He notices an Arab carrying boxes of Borax and he is hot on a trail that he thinks will lead him to a terrorist cell.

Enter his niece, Michelle Williams, who has just returned to the US after living in Israel and being involved with both Israelis and Palestinians. She has lived most of her life in Africa with her missionary parents. Diehl is her only living relative and she searches and finds him. This is the first time I have seen a deeply Christian person depicted in film who is credible and believable and doesn't make me want to puke (exceptions that come to mind are Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking and Karl Malden in On the Waterfront). She has a radiance that stops a few degrees short of boring and trite--so she nails the role and is very touching.

The Arab man is killed in a drive-by shooting (or was it? was it something more sinister?) and Michelle and her uncle bring the man's body to his only relative who Michelle has traced. Michelle and her uncle have totally different agendas and the resolution is very satisfying.

I didn't watch the movie with Wenders' voice-over commentary but I did watch The Making Of and Wenders has insightful and worthy things to say about America, its position in the world in the wake of 9/11 and what he was hoping to accomplish in this movie. Really liked it a lot despite its flaws.

Average customer rating:

Streep gives her all in a very difficult role
A Mackerel Sky
One of Meryl Streep's finest performances and a really excellent film!
"I've climbed the hill to have a better view"
Criminally Overlooked Streep Film

Plenty
Starring: Meryl Streep , Charles Dance , Tracey Ullman , John Gielgud , and Sting
Director: Fred Schepisi
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005OCJZ
Release Date: 2002-04-16

Amazon.com essential video

David Hare's Broadway play--about political idealism and the way some people always need to be fighting for a cause--was credibly transferred to the screen by director Fred Schepisi from Hare's screenplay. Meryl Streep (in the midst of a streak of movies that required accents) plays a British woman who fought for the French Resistance during World War II. When she returns to normal life in post-war England and marries a diplomat, she becomes something of a terror--speaking her mind when, of course, diplomacy dictates otherwise. Did she leave the best part of herself in France, where life was more meaningful and immediate? Hare's comment on Great Britain's post-war slide into Thatcherism, this film features a tough-minded (and not particularly likable) performance by Streep, who is actually quite good. It's a hard movie to embrace, but a well-made one nonetheless. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Streep gives her all in a very difficult role.......2005-10-25

Sumptuous film version of David Hare's play about a young and idealistic Englishwoman who experiences her glory-days whilst working for the Resistance in WW2, only to find disillusionment and unhappiness in the following years. Meryl Streep turns in a credible performance in the very difficult role of Susan Traherne.

Susan survives the danger-fraught days of the Resistance full of hope and ambition, that is soon crushed when she returns to a sense of numbing apathy in England. Marriage to renowned foreign service officer Raymond Brock (Charles Dance) does little to improve her outlook; initially entranced by her unorthodox ways, he becomes repulsed by her and sees her as an embarrassment. Susan eventually becomes a piece of driftwood floating through her own life, and that is the real tragedy.

Hare's stinging social commentary, based around an entire lost generation of real-life "Susan's", still packs quite a wallop. Meryl Streep is fabulous as Susan with a fine support-cast including Tracey Ullman, Sir John Gielgud, Sting, Sir Ian McKellen and Sam Neill.

A Mackerel Sky.......2005-10-09

Meryl Streep gives a heartbreaking performance in this deeply affecting and brilliant film about a woman trapped forever in the past. Susan Traherne might appear on paper to be a selfish and unlikable woman, but Streep somehow manages to let the audience see her inner anguish and restlessness, and her quiet desperation at not being able to recapture the feeling of living life to its fullest; something she experienced during WWII as a Resistance fighter in France. It is one of the most exquisite performances ever captured on film.

Fred Schepisi crafted this Edward R. Pressman produced RKO film from a play by David Hare. There is a fine cast which lend support to Meryl Streep, including a winning turn from Tracey Ullman as Susan's wild and irreverent friend, Alice Park. Beautifully shot in several countries, the viewer feels as if they too are trapped in a moment in time. It is a poignant and wistfull moment, however, and in the end, the ache that runs through this story is fully driven home by a flashback of a joyful Susan shortly after the war ended.

When the film opens, Susan is waiting in the dark with other Resistance fighters when a paratrooper they had not been expecting lands in their area. Sam Neill is Lazar, who has landed far from his intended location. Once the weapons are lowered and he is identified, Susan will escort him to the nearby village. Lazar saves her life from a group of Germans on night patrol, and Susan's vulnerability in that moment bonds the two together in a tender manner brought about by war.

Susan and Lazar will share a brief but intense intimacy only those who have shared some danger with another can understand. When he gets the message to leave due to impending danger, he will leave behind a momento of the time they shared that she will carry with her for life; a reminder of a life with meaning she longs to return to. The Germans murder a man in the streets they believe to be Lazar, while he escapes by bicycle. Susan watches as her life disappears with a touch of the cap; the only gesture he dare show.

Susan after the war is restless and strong willed. She wants to change everything but does not know how. She is unable to remain ensconced in a job or situation for any length of time and longs for that hour or two during the Resistance when she saw bravery, and the best in people. It is much more than nostalgia, but a paralyzing ache that will cause her to always move on. Streep lets us see into Susan's soul, and rather than being unsympathetic because of her character's outward actions, we fall in love with her from the inside out and want to save her.

She meets a diplomat named Raymond Brock (Charles Dance) who shows kindness to her in a sensitive situation. They have a romance that will eventually come to an end, or so it would seem, when she can not leave the past in France behind and move forward with her life. The one constant during all this turmoil is the spirited Alice (Tracey Ullman). She is a free soul and lives her life as she pleases, which is often to her detriment.

Susan's anguish begins to worsen, and once she makes a proposition to a bloke named Mick, her world begins to unravel. Sting is very good as Mick, who is in way over his head with Susan and her friend Alice. Just over his head is where the bullets will land when Susan finally has a mental breakdown. It is Raymond who will return to pick up the pieces. When the ambassador, portrayed with stoic flair by John Gielgud, decides to resign, Raymond will get a post in Egypt, where Susan is far from Europe and her memories.

She is also far from herself, as her friend Alice will discover when she comes to visit. The languid pace and sandy colors of Egypt would seem to agree with Susan. She is lovely and sedate, but it is because she is, in fact, sedated. Susan is a picture of serenity, but her spirit is not in evidence. It is only when Alice speaks to Raymond in her defence that she shows a glimmer of her former self.

The seed has been planted, and when the ambassador dies, Susan decides to return to England for the funeral, against her husband's wishes. It is in England she will remain, forcing Raymond to abandon his post, effectively ruining his career. Susan does not want him to suffer because of her, and has a talk with his superior with disastrous results. It will force a confrontation between she and Raymond in which she will leave her home. It is a poignant scene as she walks down the street, a bit unsteady. We know she will never return.

Lazar tracks her down from a BBC broadcast about the Resistance, and they have a reunion which proves to be too late. France is too far away to reach after so much damage has been done. We will see a joyful and hopeful Susan in a golden field in France after the war, and our hearts will break at a life which never happened.

Magnificent is not a strong enough word for Meryl Streep's performance in "Plenty." It is one of the most memorable you will ever see in film. A beautiful refrain played by the London Symphony Orchestra haunts this film, and each time I hear it still, I see Meryl Streep in that field in France, with a world of promise in front of her. This is a movie, and a performance, no film lover should miss.

One of Meryl Streep's finest performances and a really excellent film!.......2005-09-26

Plenty is one of my all-time favourite films. I loved this movie.

I understand why many people did not like it, but I think they should have another look. Sure, it is not an easy movie to watch, and Meryl Streep's character is not the most pleasant woman in the world, but that is part of the point. "Plenty" is unabashedly unsentimental, and that is one of its greatest strengths.

Meryl Streep gives one of her best performances, and it's not only because of her flawless British accent. That is just the surface of Ms. Streep's complete, and absolutely brilliant transformation into a very complicated character. She is also sexier than she has ever been on screen up to that time. She looks simply beautiful!!

This film is about as performance-oriented as films get, and it is full of great performances -the entire cast is excellent!!

"Plenty" is a movie about how different life can turn out from the way we plan it. It is not supposed to be cheerful. It is gritty, gripping, and extremely powerful. It portrays the hardships of Resistance era France, and the harsh realities of Britain immediately after the Second World War; as well as the decadence that prosperity can bring, and the disappointments of life, and how the inability to deal with them can destroy a person's sanity.

Of particular note are Charles Dance, as Streep's husband, Sam Neil as her lover, Sting and Tracey Ullman in small but important supporting roles, and especially Sir John Gielgud, who effortlessly steals the few scenes he is in. In one of the movie's few comic moments, Mr. Gielgud corrects the wife of a Burmese diplomat just as he is leaving a dinner party on the nationality of a certain European film director. Just this scene makes the movie worth watching!

I have seen this movie described as an underrated tour-de-force. That is an extremely fitting description. I would add the word classic to that description. This is a film that challenges the viewer to sit through its grim depictions of what life can be like if we don't know how to deal with life not turning out like we want it to. Depicting different eras from the Second World War to the early to mid sixties, "Plenty" is a period piece with painstaking recreations and some incredible locations in England, France and Jordan.

If someone has not seen this movie, I urge them to buy it or rent it and watch it. For a long time, this film was not available in widescreen on home video. Now there is at least one widescreen DVD which restores the film to its stunning beauty and allows us to enjoy its excellent cinematography. To anyone who appreciates great acting, this film is a MUST SEE. No serious film collector should be without this great classic.

If someone has seen it but did not like it, I urge them to watch it again, and again.

I have seen this film at least 50 times, and I could easily watch it 50 times more.

"I've climbed the hill to have a better view".......2005-07-06

The above line precedes the more famous final line in the final scene of this film (and the play, too) but I think it's one of the more crucial lines in the text. Streep's character speaks it first in French, then again in English when she realizes that her cover is no longer necessary. The repetition gives the line its' weight. Why do I think the line is particularly important? I don't think too many audiences want to climb a hill or very much else when they sit for a film but it's that better view that rewards those willing to make the climb. "Plenty" is a climb, I won't deny that. It demands your attention and your intellect and it rewards accordingly. To those who gave it a bad review, I don't know whether to envy those people or to pity them. They've missed the point and that could be a good thing: they've never known this kind of despair. If they had, they would have recognized it. On the other hand, if they've never known such despair, have they ever known what it was to live so fully that such despair is possible? Streep's Susan is a paradox of sympathy and disgust, reflecting a life that once was almost impossibly heroic which then devolves into the most trivial existence imaginable. You can't love her but you can't easily dismiss her, either. This film takes you into a difficult place that most people don't want to climb to, better view or not. "Entertainment"? No. A waste of your time? Climb the hill and see for yourself.

Criminally Overlooked Streep Film.......2005-05-12

This multilayered movie from 1985 isn't the best known of Meryl Streep's movies (it got largely overshadowed that year by "Out of Africa") and those more in tune to her commercial efforts such as "Death Becomes Her," of "She-Devil" will likely be sorely disappointed.

Based on David Hare's stage play (recently given a London revival staring the marvelous Cate Blanchett) the story revolves around Susan Traherne a British woman who, when the movie opens, is working as a part of the French resistance during World War II. The movie then follows her and her life over the next 20 years as show slowly becomes disillusioned with the vacuous society that springs up over the next two decades after the war and begins to question the idealism that led her into the resistance in the first place.

Some have been critical of Streep's performance as being "chilly" forgetting the fact that this is precisely the traits of the character that the script emphasizes particularly as she begins her downward spiral into dissatisfaction with postwar life.

Adding to the strong performacne by Streep is the supporting cast, particaulry Charles Dance as her husband, Tracy Ullman (in her first movie role) as her best friend, and the late John Gielgud as the Brisith diplomat she humilates. Look also for small, but pivitol, roles from Sting, Ian McKellen and Sam Neil.

"There will be days and days like this" says Susan Traherne as she looks out over a lovely pastoral scene in rural France on a clear day after the war has ended. "Plenty" is a powerful reminder of how such optimism can quickly be dismantled.

Average customer rating:

Streep gives her all in a very difficult role
A Mackerel Sky
One of Meryl Streep's finest performances and a really excellent film!
"I've climbed the hill to have a better view"
Criminally Overlooked Streep Film

Plenty
Starring: Meryl Streep , Charles Dance , Tracey Ullman , John Gielgud , and Sting
Director: Fred Schepisi
Manufacturer: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

The French Lieutenant's Woman
Sophie's Choice
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ASIN: 0782010660
Release Date: 1999-06-22

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Streep gives her all in a very difficult role.......2005-10-25

A Mackerel Sky.......2005-10-09

One of Meryl Streep's finest performances and a really excellent film!.......2005-09-26

"I've climbed the hill to have a better view".......2005-07-06

Criminally Overlooked Streep Film.......2005-05-12

Great Performances (Frances / Plenty / Tender Mercies)

Average customer rating:

Great Performances (Frances / Plenty / Tender Mercies)
Starring: Jessica Lange , Kim Stanley , Sam Shepard , Bart Burns , and Jonathan Banks
Director: Graeme Clifford , Fred Schepisi , and Bruce Beresford
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
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Similar Items:

A Cry in the Dark
Sophie's Choice
The Beguiled
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The Passenger

ASIN: B0000844JG
Release Date: 2003-04-29

Amazon.com

Frances
Jessica Lange gives a career performance in a role she was born to play: the talented and troubled Frances Farmer. Farmer's awful trajectory travels from bright Seattle girl to 1930s Hollywood starlet to degraded (eventually lobotomized) mental patient. Lange, who has the blond, clean look of Farmer's heyday, goes into these places with the fierce abandon of a true believer. Her performance, the lush John Barry score, and the period re-creation are all worth applauding; almost everything else fails. Everyone except Farmer is grotesquely caricatured to fit the movie's thesis, which is that if you are intelligent and nonconformist, the system will resolutely destroy you. (The medical establishment is evil incarnate.) This simple conclusion seems inadequate and disrespectful of Frances Farmer's tragic problems. For a radiant glimpse of what the real Farmer had to offer, see Howard Hawks's Come and Get It, which bristles with excitement over a new discovery. --Robert Horton

Plenty
David Hare's Broadway play--about political idealism and the way some people always need to be fighting for a cause--was credibly transferred to the screen by director Fred Schepisi from Hare's screenplay. Meryl Streep (in the midst of a streak of movies that required accents) plays a British woman who fought for the French Resistance during World War II. When she returns to normal life in post-war England and marries a diplomat, she becomes something of a terror--speaking her mind when, of course, diplomacy dictates otherwise. Did she leave the best part of herself in France, where life was more meaningful and immediate? Hare's comment on Great Britain's post-war slide into Thatcherism, this film features a tough-minded (and not particularly likable) performance by Streep, who is actually quite good. It's a hard movie to embrace, but a well-made one nonetheless. --Marshall Fine

Tender Mercies
Sometimes everything comes together in a movie and it becomes something so much greater than the sum of its parts that it can only be described as a miracle. That's the case with Tender Mercies, a quietly luminous character piece about an alcoholic, washed-up country singer named Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall in an Oscar-winning performance) who hits bottom in a motel room one night and then slowly finds his way back into the land of the living with the help of the widow (Tess Harper) and her young son. It's a low-key, contemplative film that feels like a rural American family comedy in the vein of the great Japanese director, Yasujiro Ozu. Tender Mercies was directed by Australian Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant), written by Horton Foote (To Kill a Mockingbird), who won an Oscar for his screenplay, and has an unbeatable cast. This is one of Duvall's most intimate and deeply personal performances, matched only by his debut 14 years later as actor-writer-director in The Apostle. --Jim Emerson

Hav Plenty
Average customer rating:

What a Relief....

Corney but funny

Ugh

One Of The Greatest Movies I Have Seen

Nice movie that is down to earth

Hav Plenty

ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000065KO4

Customer Reviews:

What a Relief...........2007-01-31

Corney but funny.......2007-01-19

The movie was really corney but in a funny sort of way.

Ugh.......2006-08-22

I rented this movie and believe me when I say I cried.....because I wanted a refund. I hated it. Was boring and characters had no depth.

One Of The Greatest Movies I Have Seen.......2006-06-24

Nice movie that is down to earth.......2006-05-24

Land of Plenty [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

Realistic way to make a strong point
worse wenders, best 9/11
Don't bother

Land of Plenty [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Wim Wenders
Manufacturer: AV Channel
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Product Features:

Behind the scenes
Cast/Crew Interview(s)
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Trailer(s)

ASIN: B000CSA1JK

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: English (Dolby Digital 5.1) English (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: The German director Wim Wenders has been a loyal, sometimes baffled friend of America for a long time. His view of American landscapes and folkways is often romantic and always affectionate, perhaps never more so than in "Land of Plenty," a feature he shot on digital video in 16 days in 2003. Taking up the divided, anxious state of post-9/11 American life, "Land of Plenty," which Mr. Wenders conceived with Scott Derrickson and wrote with Michael Meredith, is like a clumsy, well-meaning intervention in a family quarrel. Scrambling the easy polarities of left and right, red state and blue, he urges us to love one another as much as we love the beautiful country we uneasily and contentiously share. "Land of Plenty" does not avoid sentimentality. On the contrary, it insists that expressions of caring and sympathy, even if they risk mawkishness, are the best available antidotes to hatred and intolerance. It is as hard to argue with this idea as it is wholeheartedly to believe it completely. Extras: Behind the scenes Cast/Crew Interview(s) Interactive Menu Scene Access Trailer(s)

Customer Reviews:

Realistic way to make a strong point.......2006-07-31

There are so few films which deal with how Americans are dealing with the aftermath of the 9/11 terroist attacks and the fear and paranoia that follow. i didn't find it unrealistic, I think these characters were very believable. I think there are many people like Paul who felt like the government wasn't doing enough to protect its citizens and took on a guardian angel approach. There are other people like Lana who have a different perspective on it, maybe due to her travels and living abroad as an expat which helps her see things from a different perspective, but she is still deeply affected. I think this movie helps us see these two perspectives and therefore helps us deal with our personal grief and feelings about the terrorist attack. It is so important that Wenders has put the issue of 9/11 which was so publicised and hyped in the context of the homeless problem which is so completely ignored. This film is simple, but insightful.

worse wenders, best 9/11.......2006-07-03

this movie questions about the u.s. politics.
an egocentiric way of perception causes paranoid behaviours. standing on this concept, wenders re-paints a brief picture of u.s. society in a small scale! and i believe, he is very upset about what's going on!
you had to forget about hollywood clichés; timing, action, dialogs and etc...(but as a Wenders movie, it is full of many clichés) if you are bored. it's pity that, this moive tells about this schizoid situation.
also you should check the soundtrack.

Don't bother.......2006-05-21

The very definition of corny. An unbelievably paranoid Vietnam vet meets his unbelievably wholesome Christian neice and they witness a drive-by shooting of a Pakistani man.
One wants to contact his family, one wants to paint him as a terrorist. Somehow, his body is released into their care and they drive across California to a trailer park and dump him in a morgue before arranging his burial.
Neice and uncle somehow then "find each other" in a corny, dreamy, post-9-11, fluttering flags version of patriotism.
It's not about the poor innocent victim of racial profiling at all. It's all about a sugary kind of patriotism that ends up ignoring the victim entirely.
Don't bother with it. (My DVD arrived from the vender rolling around in a squashed case.)

Average customer rating:

Sunset Diary
Starring: Sunset Diary
Manufacturer: Aloha Plenty
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000BD689I
Release Date: 2005-08-24

Average customer rating:

Joe Christ Volume 3: Good and Plenty
Starring: Joe Christ; Amanda B James
Director: Joe Christ
Manufacturer: DEPT.13
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Average customer rating:

Literary Classics - The Cantebury Tales

Manufacturer: Eagle Rock Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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