The production company of Merchant Ivory has carved out a notch in film history, mainly for crafting finely filmed adaptations of literary works.  Their award winning films such as Howard's End, A Room with a View, and The Remains of the Day were successful both at the box office and with critics.  Home Vision Entertainment has been releasing a series of this companies films, and their latest release is The Ballad of the Sad Café, a 1991 film staring Vanessa Redgrave, and Keith Carradine.  This movie is an adaptation of both the novel by Carson McCullers and the play based on the book that was written by Edward Albee.  While this movie is well made and has the feel of a literary work, it lacks the depth and meaning that a good book has.  A beautiful film in a lot of ways, in the final analysis it still comes up short.

In a small Georgian town at the height of the depression, Miss Amelia (Vanessa Redgrave) runs the local store.  She is tough as nails, glaring at everyone and never showing a soft side.  She has a small farm in addition to the store, but her most profitable product is the moonshine she brews out in the swamp.

Things change in Amelia's life when a hunchbacked dwarf comes into town claiming to be her cousin.  The only proof Lymon (Cork Hubbert) offers of their relationship is an old cracked picture that is too faded to make out.  In any case, the lonely Amelia takes him in and treats him like a son.  Lymon takes advantage of this; sleeping late, loafing around, and basically not doing any work.  He does help out though, and comes up with the idea of turning her store into a café.  It's extremely popular with the locals filling the place most nights.

Just when things were looking up, Marvin Macy (Keith Carradine) is released from jail and returns to town.  Marvin had married Miss Amelia, and though he loved her, she kicked him out of their bedroom on their wedding night, banishing him to the stable.  He tried to talk to her, and even signed over all of his property to her, but she wouldn't allow him in her home.  Finally he left, robbed some filling stations, and spent several years on a chain gang.  Now he's come back, and he intimidates everyone in the town.

I really enjoyed the first 20 minutes of this film.  This section consisted of little slices of life, scenes that showed how people lived and what their lives were like in the deep south during the depression.  After the main plot started though I though the film started to slowly go down hill.
 
While I haven't read the novel that this movie is based on, it seem clear from this that the main theme is the danger of misplaced love.  All of the main characters feel deep affection for someone that ends up hurting them, and the preacher, played by Rod Steiger, even gives a little soliloquy about that in the latter half of the film.

The problem is that this theme isn't explored enough, something that would be hard to do in a film though relatively easy in a novel.   Though the main motivations are implied successfully, such as the fact that Amelia is lonely and relishes the chance to take care of Lymon, lesser details are omitted.  Why is Lymon scared of the dark?  Why did Amelia agree to marry Marvin and then ignores him on their wedding day?  The background stories, and therefore the richness of the film, are missing.  Had they explored any of the characters further, the movie would have been much better.  As it was, I was wondering if Amelia was possibly mentally handicapped based on some of her actions, or if there was a reason behind her behavior.
 
Vanessa Redgrave does a wonderful job.  She has a weathered look about her.  She managed to look like she's lived her life preforming hard labor on a farm.  She is able to express a lot without talking, which adds a lot to the film.

In contrast, I think Keith Carradine was just average.  He spends a lot of the film just brooding and glaring.  His character could have been richer with a better performance.  He didn't do a bad job, but I had a hard time connecting with his character.

There was one problem with the casting and that is the fact that Vanessa Redgrave is a over a decade older than Keith Carradine.  An important scene near the end of the movie has the two main characters get into a fist fight, and I just couldn't suspend my disbelief.  There isn't any way a lady in her mid 50's could physically fight a man in his early 40's who has spent the last several years on a chain gang.  But in the film it's an even match.

This movie was the first, and so far only, time that actor Simon Callow stepped behind the camera.  He does a fairly good job mostly.  There are many sections that are visually beautiful in the film, and he is able to capture the atmosphere and life of the working poor very well.  There are also some parts where his direction isn't as good.  He tries to get artsy in a few sections and it distracts from the story more than anything.  His worse offense is was in shooting the day for night scenes.  They weren't very convincing at all.  The director made the mistake of shooting the sky in these scenes and the clouds show up clearly while the people in the foreground can hardly be seen.  These weren't major errors, like the casting mistake, but they did interrupt the flow of the movie.

Audio:

The stereo soundtrack was clean and fit the movie well.  While it wasn't dynamic, this is a dialog based movie and there wasn't a lot of need for a lot of bass.  There weren't any dropouts or other audio defects making this a standard, but very acceptable, sounding disc.

Video:

The widescreen anamorphic image looks very good.  The colors were very clear and vivid, and the detail was excellent.  You could see the fine lines in Redgrave's face and the stubble on Carradine's chin clearly.  A nice clear picture with hardly a trace of digital defects.

Extras:

The disc includes a commentary track by director Simon Callow.  It was a little dull in parts, but overall acceptable.  He talks a little too much about what is actually on the screen, but he also points out the differences between the movie and the book.

Oddly enough, there is also an additional 17 minutes of commentary by Callow that plays over assorted scenes from the movie.  This second commentary, non-scene specific, has Callow detailing how he came to be associated with this project, and how he came to film the movie.

Final Thoughts:

While the idea behind the film in intriguing, the movie doesn't quite pull it off.  A little more detail and background about the characters would have gone a long way towards making this a much better film.  As it is, there are some lovely scenes, and the movie is enjoyable to sit through.  When it is over however, I was wishing there was a little bit more depth and substance to the film.  Worth watching once, but I can't see much replay value making this DVD a good rental.