Customer Reviews

Rich in Love [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As her family begins to unravel, young Lucille Odom (Kathryn Erbe) enburdens herself with the job of holding the whole deal together, including a casual father (Albert Finney) and a wild older sister (Suzi Amis).

Erbe, a Chicagoan who does far too much work on stage and too little on film (What About Bob?), is wonderful, Finney, brilliant. The story does tend to wander, and each of the new characters that crosses our path (including Piper Laurie and Alfre Woodard) tend to show us as many weaknesses as strengths. Such is the honesty of the tale.

The Southern (Charleston?) setting is wonderfully comfortable-we ride the visual images as much as the heartfelt characters. The whole thing has a Hallmark Hall of Fame feeling---with not the perfunctory payoff in the end

I like this film very much.

RICH IN LOVE boasts a great ensemble cast, but it's probably not a disservice to the other actors in this 1993 heartwarmer to say that the film BELONGS to Albert Finney. To say nothing of the fact that his is absolutely the best Southern accent of any of the non-(US)Southern born actors in the film. What is it about the Brits ready mastery of Dixiespeak anyway? OK, OK, aside from Albert Finney in this movie, I can actually only think of Vivien Leigh's flawless turn as Miz Scarlett in 1939.

So maybe it has more to do with being a huge talent than with one's nationality. Still such solid performers as Piper Laurie and Jill Clayburgh kind of wander in and out of their accents here. Finney, however, is just about perfection here. And not just linguistically. He inhabits his role as the chronically perplexed retiree Warren Odom, who is attempting make sense of his wife's sudden abandonment of him and his high school aged daughter (Kathryn Erbe). More oblivious than truly insensitive, he ultimately has to come to terms with the fact that although he and his wife still love each other in their way, after 27 years, they can no longer live together.

Erbe also turns in a remarkable performance--especially considering that the actress, who was in her mid-twenties at the time the film was made, so convincingly plays a precocious high school senior. Also impressive is the film's one true Southerner, Suzy Amis as her impetuous newly wed (and ambivalently pregnant) sister. It's a lovingly dysfunctional Southern family, one that ultimately comes together in its clumsy, lopsided way. No easy answers here, but everybody grows up a little bit over the course of the film's two hours. And maybe that's the best you can hope for.

RICH IN LOVE doesn't make any grandiose statements, and that's all to the good. It's one of those "little movies" that somehow manages to reveal a few great truths about the human condition. And it offers a great performance by Albert Finney. Coincidentally, I recently also caught his follow-up film, THE BROWNING VERSION, as well. It's difficult to imagine two more divergent roles than the garrulous Southerner he plays here and the reserved English Classics teacher he portrayed in the latter film. He has a remarkable range, one that goes beyond a mere facility in mastering accents. His is a much deeper mastery indeed.

Nominated five times for an Academy Award, Finney has never won. His last nomination was in 2000 for a solid but certainly not stellar turn in ERIN BROCKOVICH. I guess neither RICH IN LOVE nor THE BROWNING VERSION were big enough to merit the Academy's attention, but his work in both those films was infinitely more subtle, and at the same time more commanding, than his role as Julia Roberts' boss in that megahit.

And people ask me why I don't take the Oscars seriously.

I love this film!! A great southern film-wonderful acting, and story is great. I am quirky southern character too!!!:)

I absolutely love this movie, and MGM needs to get off their can and release this on DVD. My VCR broke, I'm not buying another one and MGM so kindly made this movie copy-protected, so now I can't even get it transferred to DVD on my own. I guess MGM has until the time it comes on AMC or Turner and then hello DVD recorder and goodbye VHS (it's not like the DVD release is gonna have extras anyway)

Wonderful ensemble cast headed by Albert Finney - beautiful setting in Charleston, South Carolina, with long, sweeping shots of an antebellum mansion. But I disagree with the film's premise - "We took love to its conclusion"; ergo it's OK for Mother to leave family behind and start a new life. How selfish. I am not giving anything away here as that is how the movie opens, not ends. And after all these years, there was such a memorable scene in the kitchen with Finney, that I still remember it with clarity. He needs comfort food, and for him that is a mayonnaise and potato chip sandwich on something like Wonder Bread.

I absoulutely love this movie, I see it all the time on Romance Classics Channel; it just so entertaining and real!! See it and you will not be dissapointed!!!

I loved this movie :-) It came out when I was too young to appreciate it, so I never saw it in the theatres. I was drawn back to it after reading the novel "Rich in Love" by Josephine Humphreys, on which it was based. I think this movie can appeal to anyone who enjoys films like "Fried Green Tomatoes" and "Thelma and Louise". It has a great combination of wit, sadness, humor, irony, and quirky characters.

The acting in this movie was just superb and the scenery and house were a treat as well . . .I love this movie and have watched it many times. I wish I could write a review worthy of this simply wonderful movie - it's a sweet little film!

Easy to watch interesting movie. Anyone who remembers the pre Hugo Charleston will love this movie. Pictures of the old Cooper River Bridges, East Bay Street and Market area are priceless. It brings back old memories of a changed Charleston after hurrican Hugo. A must see for Charleston buffs.

This is one of my favorite movies. Classic family quirkiness at its best. I also recommend reading the novel "Rich in Love" by Josephine Humphries, on which it was based.