Love Field is the kind of movie where you just know the words `set against the backdrop' were used in its pitch: A love story between a black man and a white woman, set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination. It's not a particularly comfortable mix of ideas.
What's strange is that it handles both threads rather well, if taken separately. The sense of shock at the assassination feels genuine for the most part, mainly because of the inclusion of a contemporary news clip as the newsreader struggles to find words and clear his throat as he announces Kennedy's death.
The love story is rather less successful, but comes close to being touching every so often. As Michelle Pfeiffer makes her way to the Kennedy funeral, she meets Dennis Haysbert and his daughter on a long-distance coach. Their growing fondness for each other is mostly convincing, and we should be grateful that there is no mutual-animosity to change to affection, an idea so old it can ruin a movie immediately.
Regardless of their individual merits, combine these threads together and the movie starts to unravel. Its heart is in the right place so it can't really be called tasteless, but it skirts the edges a little too often. In one scene we have to switch from the travellers spending a restful night at a friend's house to them watching the TV as Lee Harvey Oswald is shot. This kind of uncomfortable transition is made a number of times, and grates on each of them, none more so than in the climax, when Jackie Kennedy looks at Pfeiffer as she is driven past her on the way to her husband's funeral. Its intention was certainly not to trivialise the assassination, but too often it seemed to be used for dramatic effect in an otherwise unrelated love story.
The film seemed to lack confidence; believing that its main story was simply not interesting enough, it included racism, segregation, wife-beating, kidnapping and child abuse for good measure. These darker tones were treated with the gentle touch as everything else, which didn't earn them the credibility they deserved.
Love Field probably aimed too high. It just didn't have the weight to carry off the issues it dealt with or the messages it tried to send out. Had the assassination been played down it could have been a great love story. Had the love story been played down it could have been a great story about segregation. Had segregation been played down it could have been a great movie about the impact of the assassination on the lives of ordinary people. It tried to be all these things together, and together they weakened their own credibility.
It seems harsh to include these criticisms of a movie that was lightweight and mostly enjoyable, but that was the problem; a film that dealt with these issues shouldn't have been lightweight or enjoyable. Its tone wasn't dark enough to pull them off. It was a nice enough movie, with good performances from Pfeiffer and Haysbert, but it asked too much of itself and forced us to ask the same.
What's strange is that it handles both threads rather well, if taken separately. The sense of shock at the assassination feels genuine for the most part, mainly because of the inclusion of a contemporary news clip as the newsreader struggles to find words and clear his throat as he announces Kennedy's death.
The love story is rather less successful, but comes close to being touching every so often. As Michelle Pfeiffer makes her way to the Kennedy funeral, she meets Dennis Haysbert and his daughter on a long-distance coach. Their growing fondness for each other is mostly convincing, and we should be grateful that there is no mutual-animosity to change to affection, an idea so old it can ruin a movie immediately.
Regardless of their individual merits, combine these threads together and the movie starts to unravel. Its heart is in the right place so it can't really be called tasteless, but it skirts the edges a little too often. In one scene we have to switch from the travellers spending a restful night at a friend's house to them watching the TV as Lee Harvey Oswald is shot. This kind of uncomfortable transition is made a number of times, and grates on each of them, none more so than in the climax, when Jackie Kennedy looks at Pfeiffer as she is driven past her on the way to her husband's funeral. Its intention was certainly not to trivialise the assassination, but too often it seemed to be used for dramatic effect in an otherwise unrelated love story.
The film seemed to lack confidence; believing that its main story was simply not interesting enough, it included racism, segregation, wife-beating, kidnapping and child abuse for good measure. These darker tones were treated with the gentle touch as everything else, which didn't earn them the credibility they deserved.
Love Field probably aimed too high. It just didn't have the weight to carry off the issues it dealt with or the messages it tried to send out. Had the assassination been played down it could have been a great love story. Had the love story been played down it could have been a great story about segregation. Had segregation been played down it could have been a great movie about the impact of the assassination on the lives of ordinary people. It tried to be all these things together, and together they weakened their own credibility.
It seems harsh to include these criticisms of a movie that was lightweight and mostly enjoyable, but that was the problem; a film that dealt with these issues shouldn't have been lightweight or enjoyable. Its tone wasn't dark enough to pull them off. It was a nice enough movie, with good performances from Pfeiffer and Haysbert, but it asked too much of itself and forced us to ask the same.