Watching this movie is a lot like, in some quiet way, railing against mainstream cinema. This is not a popcorn-and-cola, big screen, ultra violent and...arousing potboiler. Atmosphere is something that that Tomb Raider dreck couldn't manage, unless it's some sordid, purely libidinous atmosphere.
This movie is brilliant, for several reasons. There are few leading men with the sort of silent charisma of Henry Thomas, who plays the surrogate father of the baby he finds in the woods, left there by the murderous father. The entire cast put in good performances, but Thomas is superb as the reticent outcast from his hometown's most wayward family. Remember that harangue about atmosphere? This thing's almost swollen with it. The beautiful backdrop of rural North Carolina is given a nervous system of haunted, ramshackle homes and wandering farm animals, as well as the usual small town, yammering old men, sitting in the general store swapping misogynistic jokes. This somber tone is enlivened, or let's say intensified, by a wonderous performance by David Straithairn as the deranged salesman hoping to recover his baby, whether or not it requires the murder of the child's twelve year old aunt.
Few of the movies that Hollywood producers spit up on the big screen are worth seeing. Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, and the Straight Story are notable exceptions. If this movie ever made it that far (remember, we have a tendency to forget truly adroit film making), then it deserves a space among the inspired flicks mentioned above. Now, if they could only infuse this sort of power and substance into such filler as The Nutty Professor...
