The 1983 film that Martin Ritt (Hud, Sounder) directed from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's memoir of moving to Florida in 1928 to become a gentlewoman farmer (buying an orange grove) in order to write (gothic romances) has a line of development and episodes rather than a plot. Those interested in plots rather than characters should turn elsewhere, though there is some violence (indeed, fairly shocking violence) to prove that "Cross Creek" is an American movies.

Marjorie, impersonated by Mary Steenburgen, discovers that there is more to orange-growing than picking the fruit when it is ripe. To run even small-scale capitalist agriculture (that is production for a market) involved considerable labor, plus worrying about freezes, droughts, floods, etc. Thus, Rawlings could not just sit at her typewriter and concoct what were, undoubtedly, plot-driven books.

The line of development is the writer's gradual discovery of a subject: the small triumphs and mounting tragedies of the rural folk around her. Writing is not among the most visually dramatic of occupations. Throwing a typewriter out a window in frustration (like Jane Fonda in "Julia") is visual, writing on walls is visual, but hitting keys on typewriters or computer keyboards is not very interesting to watch. Thus, movies about writers tend to focus on obstacles to doing the work of writing ("Quills", "Before Night Falls") or focuses on the stories the writers tell ("Islands in the Stream", "The Past Regained").

"Cross Creek" shows Ms. Rawlings struggling for undisturbed time, but mostly shows the more interesting characters she captured on paper (we like to think that what we do is "immortalize" those we write about), for instance, a backwoods couple's fierce pride, high infant mortality, and incessant humming of the same spiritual (Jacob's Ladder, her first published book) or the girl with a pet fawn that grew up and made trouble (and became the boy in Rawlings's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Yearling., or Rawlings's housekeeper Geechee and her bad choice of lovers.

The Florida (.Alachua and Marion counties) location photography by John A. Alonzo (who also shot "Sounder", "Norma Rae", "Conrack," and "Pete 'n Tilllie" for Ritt, and "Chinatown" for Roman Polanski). The interiors are fairly golden. The exteriors are intensely green—as verdant as "The Emerald Forest" or "The Thin Read Line" sites, considerably greener than the also gorgeous location photography in "The Yearling."

The Marjorie of Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy) is very stiff. She doesn't know what she's doing as an orange grower or as a writer... or as a woman. But with considerable help and patience from others, she eventually succeeds as all three: getting her crop to market, getting published, recognizing the right man, this last a category she didn't believe existed, seemingly committed to the 1970s maxim "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle." (I don't remember whether this attitude was as pervasive in the book, though she certainly set out to live on her own.)

Steenburgen's Rawlings has an excess of tact. Quite a bit of tact is called for in dealing with her neighbors and employees, and she manages to offend both by trying to help and trying to stand back and let others be autonomous as she wants to be (doing unto others as she wants done unto her). She is almost dour, but this makes the scene in which she lights up (wordlessly) before dinner all the more powerful.

Peter Coyote (E.T., Jagged Edge)is almost too good to be true: the perfect supportive but not domineering male (like Alan Bates in "An Unmarried Woman"). Norton Baskin was celebrated in Rawlings's book, and was also a technical advisor for the movie on the time, place, and woman.

Rip Torn, who, besides being married to Geraldine Page, is more famous for the movie roles he lost (his Broadway role with Page in "Sweet Bird of Youth" went to Paul Newman, and his role in "Easy Rider" went to Jack Nicholson who rode it to stardom), than for the ones he played (Men in Black) received his only Oscar nomination for "Cross Creek." His performance as the father of the child with the fawn bears little resemblance to Gregory Peck's. The roles are significantly different: Marsh Turner has a brood of young 'uns, not a sole survivor. And instead of near-tragedy (as in "The Yearling") the fawn growing up leads to real tragedy (in "Cross Creek"). Torn is much put upon, but has a sly sense of humor.

As his fawn-smitten daughter Dana Hill was affecting, but with even less sense of fun than Steenburgen's observer.

As Geechee,, Alfre Woodard (Passion Fish, Crooklyn, The Piano Lesson) made herself indispensable (preparing for "I'll Fly Away"?), but has man problems of her own to work through, and is confused by the northern woman for whom she works. She is funny without triggering any political correctness alarms.

In am important cameo, Malcolm McDowell, who was married to Steenburgen at the time, plays legendary editor (of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and, most famously, Thomas Wolfe) Max Perkins, and helps Marjorie find her voice.

Voice-overs break the "Show, don't tell" first commandment and seem to some cinema purists as cheating. There are voice-over narrations that really annoy me (Mark Hellinger's smarmy one for "Naked City"), but I think they are just fine for establishing a backward-looking perspective. As defined by patterns of light as "cinema noire" is, many of the great noires have voice-over narration, and a movie about a writer finding her voice seems to me an occasion for which hearing that voice is called for. The performances are subtle, but I think they are enriched by the narration. I can imagine that those who don't like Steenburgen's somewhat raspy voice disagreeing.

Steenburgen's is the sole voice in a documentary about the making of the movie. Many of the others who were involved (Ritt, Alonso, Hill) are dead, but I would have liked to hear from Torn and Coyote.

(skbreese's review of this movie stimulated me to get the DVD, having enjoyed the film in its theatrical release; I hope you got some income share, Sheila! And then I had to watch "The Yearling" again, by which time I forgot the inspiration to order the DVD,)


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD