Let us hope, that we are all preceded by a love story
Movie Review
Sweet Land (2005)
or, Let us hope, that we are all preceded by a love story
When my grandmother first immigrated to the midwest from her war-torn homeland, I wonder if she faced opposition from a nation that feared and hated Germans at the time. She was very young and alone and didn't speak the language. How did she get by? When did she meet her husband? And was there a charming love story that overcame these problems and ultimately brought me to the scene?
She rarely speaks of hard times. We don't have any stories of the difficulties in her life after the war. She likes to tell us about how she was offered her first slice of apple pie in America and ended up making herself sick by eating the whole pie at once. But after seeing Sweet Land, a tale of immigration and integration very similar to hers, I have a few more questions about that time in her life. Unfortunately, because of the dementia, it's just too late to ask her.
Sweet Land begins powerfully, at the end of Inge Torvald's long life, as she passes away in her grandson's arms. She's gazing at a photograph which the movie goes on to explain in a series of beautiful flashbacks. It's a simple love story that overcomes post-World-War anti-German prejudice with determination and romance. Inge has an immigrant experience that matches my own grandmother's, including a pie-eating scene and a celebration of midwestern simplicity in the face of hardship.
The love story is endearing, not only because of the writing and my affinity with the subject, but because of the superb acting of the leads. Elizabeth Reaser (Mind the Gap, Grey's Anatomy), Tim Guinee (Ladder 49), Alan Cumming (X2), and Alex Kingston (ER) all put in excellent performances, handling German and Norwegian-American accents with believable and realistic charm. The film has gone on to win awards, including Best First Film at the Independent Spirit Awards, which brought it back to the tiny Times Theatre in Milwaukee, where I saw it play on Friday night. There we were surprised with the special treat of having the director, Ari Selim, flown in from LA for a Q&A with the audience after the movie. Selim was engaging and entertaining as we stumbled over our film-novice queries. He explained the direction it took to emote all the tension and desire we felt over the actor's chewing of a plate of steamed carrots. He was witty and interesting; and it was a privilege to hear the first-hand inspirations behind the film.
But neither the director nor the movie could answer the questions that now interested me. Did my family history include such over-reaching romance? Will I also bury my grandmother with the stories left untold?
Posted by heydomsar
2007-03-05
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
Rachel Ray - 2009-05-03
The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
