Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 2, 1991 TAG: 9102020519
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA BRENNAN/ THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Patricia MacLachlan's 58-page book, published just over five years ago, won the prestigious Newbery Medal for children's literature in 1986 and quietly became a classic, selling more than a million copies.
As a television movie, it is the 168th sponsored by Hallmark Hall of Fame, which has established an admirable record of underwriting high-quality productions that often garner Emmys.
MacLachlan said she fielded many inquiries from filmmakers, but not until Glenn Close did she feel confident that she had found the right producer and star.
Few would describe Close, who plays Sarah Wheaton, as plain, nor is she particularly tall, but she didn't hesitate to take the role of the woman who leaves her beloved Maine to journey westward to Kansas and a family that needs a mother.
"I think of `plain' to justify whatever is plain-spoken, unadorned," said Close. Sensible Sarah Wheaton of Maine is that sort of person. "She's the kind of woman I've always liked - she's unselfconscious about her looks, and if anything, she's probably insecure."
And because Close, at 5-foot-5, is not particularly tall, her "Sarah" boots were equipped with 4-inch lifts, she said.
Close plays opposite Christopher Walken as Jacob Witting, a young widower living with his two small children on a farm growing shabby from lack of care. Because he needs a housekeeper and the children need a mother, he has placed a newspaper advertisement in a paper back East. And because Sarah Wheaton's brother has married, she plans to leave the home she shared with him and set out on a new life.
Like many Hallmark productions, "Sarah, Plain and Tall" is a story about love and family, and many who worked on it were veterans of earlier Hallmarks.
Close, who starred in 1988 in Hallmark's "Stones for Ibarra" based on Harriet Doerr's novel, paired in the star's first outing as executive producer with William Self, who made Hallmark's "The Tenth Man." His son Edwin Self is supervising producer. Director Glenn Jordan also directed Hallmark's acclaimed "Promise," "Home Fires Burning" and "The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer."
Walken appeared in Hallmark's "Barefoot in Athens" back in 1966. Walken is also known for his stage work, having won Obie, Theatre World and Clarence Derwent awards. And he won the best-supporting-actor Oscar for "The Deer Hunter."
"Chris Walken never does television," Close said. "I was thrilled when he wanted to do it."
Then there are the children, Christopher Bell, who in his acting debut strongly resembles a Botticelli cherub, and young Lexi Randall.
"Little Christopher is a gem," said Close. Walken said, "I could be Laurence Olivier in my scenes with him, and he'd still steal them - he's that good."
Part of little Chris Bell's charm is built into the script: He is Caleb, the hard-to-resist younger child, who immediately falls in love with the woman he hopes will be his new mom.
It's his sister, Anna (Lexi Randall), who remembers their young mother and like her father, fears that replacing her in the family means letting go of the memory.
Close also chose costume designer Van Broughton Ramsey, who had worked on "Lonesome Dove." "For me, when you do a period movie, your character isn't complete until you put on the clothes. They're tremendously important, and the costumes in `Sarah' are superb."
Since her memorable performance as obsessive, psychotic Alex Forrest in "Fatal Attraction" in 1988, for which she won an Oscar nomination, Close has become a mother. So perhaps it's not surprising that she became interested in MacLachlan's book for young readers.
Originally MacLachlan, born in Cheyenne, Wyo., had written the book largely for her mother, who was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. MacLachlan wanted to write the story, based on a true event in her family's history, while her mother could read and appreciate it.
The author did not expect that the book would sell well, or that several film companies would approach her to buy the rights.
"I was in no hurry to part with the rights," she said. "Somehow I knew that the right person with the right sensibilities would come along, and a film would get made that would do justice to the characters and the story."
That person turned out to be Close, who had read "Sarah" for Books on Tape. "It was a busy time, and I remember thinking I didn't have time to do it," she said. "But I went back and met Patty MacLachlan, and she said there had been many inquiries [about making the story into a film]. It's really become a modern classic."
MacLachlan herself wrote the screenplay, filling out the characters that had been part of her family's lore.
"The way I've written it isn't exactly factual," acknowledged MacLachlan. "It was in my mother's family when she was a child - someone who came from the coast of Maine to be with one of my uncles. When [my mother] got Alzheimer's disease, I decided I should write part of her past for her. The real story did take place in Kansas - we filmed less than 100 miles away from where it really happened."
The movie includes two scenes with animals: one finds Sarah upset over the slaying of a lamb; in the other she goes out in a tornado to find the family's cat.
"They're about Jacob's being totally unfeeling," Close explained, "and his lack of emotion and his lack of involvement. She needed that to set her off."
Angered, Sarah forces Jacob Witting to confront the emotions he has tried to bury along with his wife. Like his daughter, Jacob must resolve his feelings if Sarah Wheaton is to join their family.
by CNB