How to Make an American Quilt
Not nearly as remarkable as its distinguished cast, but fine entertainment for a lazy day.
Reviewed by Stephen MacMillan Moser, Fri., April 6, 2001
How to Make an American Quilt
D: Jocelyn Moorhouse (1995); with Winona Ryder, Alfre Woodard, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Jean Simmons, Kate Nelligan, Samantha Mathis, Johnathon Schaech, Dermot Mulroney, Kate Capshaw, Maya Angelou, Rip Torn, Jared Leto, Claire Danes, Holland Taylor.
Creaking with metaphors, How to is a lovely story to watch, with a knockout cast well-skilled in ensemble acting. But it plods along, documenting the making of a wedding quilt that incorporates the lives of each person who contributes to it. Finn Dodd (Ryder, at her tentative and mysterious best) is spending the summer with her aunts while finishing her thesis. She is also engaged to Sam (Mulroney), who seems to get needier as Finn seems to be getting cold feet. The quilt is a gift for Finn's wedding and is a labor of love among a group of women whose lives are intertwined in the Northern California wine country, each of them sewing a panel that expresses the theme "where love resides." But love resides in many different places among these women -- from sisters Glady Jo and Hy, entertainingly played by Bancroft and Burstyn, who are exactly the kinds of aunts anyone would like to have in their family, to the prickly Em (Simmons) and the unconventional Constance (Nelligan). So many different stories, as interpreted in quilting panels, do not always make a pretty quilt, and much negotiating and compromise is the very nature of putting the quilt together, as it is in life. Not Ryder's best work, but Burstyn and Bancroft are delightful as the pot-smoking aunts, rockin' out to Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry." Simmons is a pleasure to see; despite her lengthy career, she doesn't appear often these days. Mathis is always charming -- it would be nice if things would really click for her career. Kate Nelligan is fabulous -- I was never able to abide her work, presuming her to be like the kind of tight-assed, judgmental characters she portrayed. But I unexpectedly caught her in Frankie and Johnny (with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer) and could not believe I was watching the woman I had scorned for so long. Now I look forward to seeing her every time she appears. In spite of many fascinating and multifaceted characterizations, this vehicle does not serve any of these actresses well. One expects Greatness out of such an enormous and worthy cast, but the entertain-o-meter stops short of Just Okay, and I wish such talent had been applied to a script that utilized their collective abilities better. The story's concept is fine, but director Moorhouse has to work hard to keep the story from fragmenting into oblivion. Though not weighing in as a heavyweight, the multitude of fine performances ensures that it is fine entertainment on a lazy day.
