david lynch goes straight

The Straight Story (1999)
4 Stars
Directed by David Lynch
Starring Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek

You know you're in for something unusual when the opening titles read "Walt Disney Pictures presents a film by David Lynch". The blurb on the DVD box calls it "the sweetest and most compassionate movie Lynch has ever made." While I have yet to see The Elephant Man, movies like Dune, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, and Mulholland Drive qualify that comment as being none too informative.

Actually, it's hard to believe this is the same director. Straight is a G-rated movie, a movie about family values. It's a simple story about simple solutions to life's problems, but, unlike most Disney films, at no point does it belittle the intelligence of its viewers. Spacek is great as the stuttering daughter, but Farnsworth is truly extraordinary as Alvin Straight, the old man whose body is failing him, but whose spirit is stronger than ever. Farnsworth was nominated as Best Actor (and should have beat Kevin Spacey), after a 60-year acting career, the first 40 of which he spent as a stuntman. Like Straight, Farnsworth did not long outlive his trip to Wisconsin: having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Farnsworth shot himself in 2000. He knew exactly what his character was about, and it comes through on screen.