CINEMATIC Review

THE STRAIGHT STORY   ***1/2

David Lynch

1999

IDEA:   An elderly man sets across three states to visit his ailing brother for the first time in 10 years. His mode of transportation - a lawnmower.

BLURB:   One of the most pure and compassionate films ever made about America, David Lynch’s beautifully low-key road movie is about small people, small places, and enormous human charity. Its tone is both plaintive, and surprisingly spirited, with encompassing midwest landscapes showcasing the incomparable vastness and simple pleasures of the nation’s heartland. The entire film honors that kind of modest simplicity, from Richard Farnsworth’s gravely moving performance to the directness and humanity that saturates every sweeping frame. Lynch has peerlessly captured the humble, sublime homeliness of an all too forgotten way of life. In a world where we must constantly be reminded of the dizzying urban tumult that surrounds us, the giant cities, the traffic, the impersonality – it’s important to return to the traits that really lay our foundation; love, warmth, and unreserved empathy. You can find them all right through the wheat and up the downtrodden trail.