Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991 TAG: 9103160333
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This is a dark and brooding tale of madness, stupidity and ruin.
Director and screenwriter Jim Sheridan made the fiercely uplifting "My Left Foot," a deft movie about paralyzed writer and artist Christie Brown.
Sheridan's material isn't as sure-fire in this ponderous story about an Irish farmer's obsession with a plot of land. Based on a play by John B. Keane, "The Field" is scaled to the dimensions of classical tragedy - Sheridan ignores the Irish wit that sparked "My Left Foot." At times, the story is so far-fetched and vague that it invites unintentional laughter.
But at its center is Richard Harris who gives a performance that has earned him an Academy Award nomination this year. Harris has been known to chew up scenery, so it's kind of ironic that his performance is the most convincing and understated aspect of the movie.
Harris plays Bull McCabe, a farmer on Ireland's wild and rugged west coast. The terrain is inhospitable but McCabe and his overshadowed son (Sean Bean) keep a little patch of grassland green through hard and ceaseless toil. The trouble is, he rents it from a widow who - unbeknownst to McCabe - has been terrorized by his son for 10 years. She finally decides to sell and skedaddle and everyone thinks McCabe will buy the land. But a misguided American (Tom Berenger) is in town looking for his roots and he has the cash to beat McCabe at auction.
The American hopes to bring prosperity to the region by paving paradise to put up a parking lot, as the Joni Mitchell song says. McCabe is horrified at the prospect. The old Irishman was not clicking on all cylinders to begin with - he and his wife (Brenda Fricker in a thankless role) have not spoken to each other in 18 years. So it's no surprise that the American's meddling turns McCabe into a Celtic John Brown, white beard and hair bristling and eyes ablaze, who anoints himself the savior of the land.
Sheridan is working with old and ancient themes and he seems to be in awe of them. What he may have needed to put this tall tale across more effectively is a trip to the Blarney Stone. `The Field': An Avenue release at the Grandin Theatre (345-6177). Rated PG-13 for violence, language and sexual content; 107 minutes.
by CNB