Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Release Date: 04/22/1998
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: 2
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Flags: Violence, Adult Situations, Profanity, Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Walt Disney Video
A feminist farm belt version of William Shakespeare's
King Lear, this film is based on Jane Smiley's novel about an aging farmer and his three daughters. The Lear-like farmer, Larry Cook (
Jason Robards), decides to divide up his thousand-acre farm among his three daughters, but he disinherits his youngest, Caroline (
Jennifer Jason Leigh), an attorney, when she expresses hesitancy. The other sisters, Ginny (
Jessica Lange) and Rose (
Michelle Pfeiffer), take up the offer, even though they were sexually abused by their father as children. They also take up romantically with the hippie son of a neighboring farmer, Jess Clark (
Colin Firth), after their own drunken, demented father moves out to live with Clark's father Harold (
Pat Hingle). When Rose's husband Peter (
Kevin Anderson) learns of her betrayal, he gets drunk, crashes his truck, and dies. Ginny's husband Ty (
Keith Carradine) enlists Caroline's help and sues Ginny and Rose on behalf of their father, whom he feels has been treated badly by the daughters.
~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
