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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF Road movies can be a lot of fun, but at some point you’re going to want to get somewhere. Actors’ movies, by the same token, work a lot better if you give the stars something to do. As for melodrama of a reunion… well, you get the idea. The Yellow Handkerchief manages one of the three, generously. As a road movie, touring southern Louisiana, it sees in its share of FEMA trailers, ferries, and abandoned roadside stations, but when it aims at being more than a travelogue, it falters. As an acting ensemble, it manages some great performances, but it’s never clear what they amount to. William Hurt is fantastic as ex-con Brett Hanson—convincingly inarticulate for possibly the first time in his career. Kirsten Stewart gets by playing the same sad girl that made her such an intriguing presence in Adventureland (in this case, a local girl named Martine), but the script is a little too on the nose to do her justice. Occasionally, particularly in a monologue about how often she cries (daily, it turns out), the script seems to be pushing her into premature self-parody—something not even Twilight could do.
Together with a painfully gangly road-tripper named Gordy (Eddy
Redmayne) and his convertible, Brett and Martine make their way towards
New Orleans, peeling away backstory as they go. Brett wants to reconnect
with his past, Gordy wants to see the world, and Martine just wants to
get out of her hometown for a week or so. After enough flashbacks, we realize Brett
is heading to New Orleans for a reunion with his estranged wife, May
(Maria Bello), a quest that doesn’t seem quite worthy of the fascinating
man William Hurt has created. His Brett is tortured, withdrawn, and
almost preternaturally wise, but he isn’t given much more to do than the
standard romantic hero. Even worse, the story of how Brett split with
May and went to prison is far more detailed and compelling than any
redemption the movie can offer him. There’s real naturalistic drama in
his decline, but when the movie tries to give him a second chance, all
it has are clichés.
Russell Brandom
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