THE SPITFIRE GRILL (1996) Reviewed by Jerry Saravia RATING: Two stars
The Sundance film festival will often award films of true originality and bravery. Not so with the sentimental "The Spitfire Grill," a sun-drenched, Southern soap opera about a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliot), released from prison after a five-year sentence for manslaughter, who tries to start a new life in the small town of Gilead, Maine. She works as a waitress at the Spitfire Grill - the sort of small-town restaurant inhabited by inquisitive Capraesque folks. There's the wise old woman known as Hannah (Ellen Burstyn) who runs the restaurant, the suspicious denizen (Will Patton) who feels Percy may be up to no good and...oh, do I have to go on? You've seen all this before.
The major plus for this Hollywood-like weeper is the aptly cast Alison Elliot who brings compassion and empathy to her tortured Percy, and the cantankerous Ellen Burstyn, who is at her best here since "Resurrection," as the wizened Hannah who lost her son in the war and shares Percy's faith and healing over the loss of her own son. This is ultimately a tale of redemption but it is too fabricated and uneven to succeed fully. "Girls Town" won an award at Sundance for its audacious screenplay - it should have won the Audience Award as well over this Mediocre Grill.
Most independent films continue to amaze and provoke unlike some Hollywood films that confuse action and sentiment over character and genuine emotion. Not all independent films succeed or arouse much interest yet "Spitfire Grill" shows that independence can also correlate with Hollywood's idea of fake, sentimental postures.
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