Shy People

First of all, the shots of the bayou are lovely. It made me want to go visit, to be honest. One star for that and the other for Plimpton, who is cute and alluring beyond description. The rest? Blech! Jull Clayburgh completely destroys any chance this movie might have had with her unconvincing, flat line annoying presence. Every scene she in she overacts and wrecks any momentum. Herschey is merely good, but it's easy to see that the acting talent in the Swayze went to Don and not Patrick. This movie could have been something to remember but it instead turns into 80's formulatic drivel. Ridiculous.

What is essentially an exposé of what people in the Louisiana bayou are like, just so city slickers like New York City resident Jill Clayburgh will begin to see them as something other than hicks or backwards, comes out to be a thought-provoking character driven drama worth seeing once. She's exhausted by her metropolitan life as a columnist from Cosmopolitan magazine, tired of the fights with daughter Martha Plimpton, a rebel with no cause, so she does a reverse "Beverly Hillbillies" and drags her down to the deep south so she can locate relatives that she has never met. This leads her to cousin Barbara Hershey who thinks she is from the IRS, and refuses to give up her house. But once Clayburgh proves her claim, Hershey welcomes her and Plimpton to stay, and as they get to know each other, the secrets begin to unfold which creates a bit of mystery. The house reminds me of many of the old style southern mansions you see falling apart in other movies, particularly Bette Davis's home in "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte". I've also seen several horror films that have an atmosphere like this, such as the camp classic "Frogs". But it's not only the difference in these people's lifestyles that guide the drama, and it is here where Clayburgh basically becomes just an observer, and the seemingly odd lives that Hershey and her wacky family live in starts to make more sense as the two city women become fascinated by the goings-on that they see traveling up and down the muck filled river where there's more issues than just snakes that get into the motorboat. Not as much a film than a docudrama, the camera becomes the star, and the plot takes a background to everything going on in this mysterious world right in our own country and backyard. Plimpton's relationship with her new found cousins is also an important plot point, and after a while, you're prepared for anything because in this world far away from society, anything is possible, even homemade stitches being put in one of Hershey's children's head. I don't think that this is a film that everyone will enjoy, but it is fascinating to watch for a world most people will never get to visit. The ending goes into some devastating, dark places based on the denial of Hershey's character and the three male cousins (one locked up for alleged psychotic behavior, obviously not the only one), and the tragic consequences that come out of these long hidden secrets and sudden sickening twists involving Plimpton. Plimpton gets to really blossom in this film, going from cynical New Yorker to sudden human being, losing her own selfishness as she puts man-made contraptions away and sees the world from a bigger view. I was surprised that Hershey, who gets a lot of acclaim for this, really doesn't have excessive screen time, but she's really brave in going without makeup for a change, far earthier then she would be as the glamorous tragic heroine the year later in "Beaches". This won't be considered one of the highlights of Clayburgh's career, but I found that she did what she was directed to do, and does become more content and less neurotic as the film goes on. "Shy People" may not be the outgoing film that calls people to watch it, but if you give it a chance, you'll find the artistic success that is strived for even if it is not a triumph.

This movie is for all the people who were enthralled by Runaway Train and wondered what happened to its director. Well, he eventually made Tango and Cash; which has its time and place, but he also made this bonafide work of greatness. It isn't a kinetically fierce work of cinema like Runaway Train, but there is so much else here for the viewer to mull over. A character driven story where none of the characters are wholly endearing, but all of them are vulnerable and forgiveable. While the movie grips you with its stark examination of colliding cultures, it never for a moment lets you forget that everyone involved is a real person.

Barbara Hershey was incredible as usual. This film will stay with you well after its over.

Barbara Hershey won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Andrei Konchalovsky's "Shy People". The movie portrays a magazine writer (Jill Clayburgh) and her daughter (Martha Plimpton) taking a trip to the Louisiana boondocks to meet a distant relative (Hershey). As the movie progresses, we learn not only about the relative's various kinds of superstitions, but also about the secrets that the great uncle held, and how they relate to some current rifts in the family. Probably the movie's best aspect is how it dignifies country people. While making it clear that these folks have some backwards notions about things - namely that the deceased man is still watching - Konchalovsky never makes them look stupid. Also, we get to see rural Louisiana (although it may have changed in the past twenty years, especially after Hurricane Katrina). If anything mildly disappointed me about the movie, it's that I didn't get to hear more about Cajun culture. But then again, it's probably best that the movie didn't lose its main focus. I would suspect that the one boy was right when he accused the oil companies. All in all, worth seeing.

This is one of my favorite movies. Barbara Hershey is awesome. The portrayal of the bayou is very realistic, claustrophobic, eerie, and downright real. It's kind of a feminine Deliverance. I'm glad I saw this when it came out as it is hard to find now--not on DVD. Definitely worth it. Should have been up for a few Oscars. Why can't it be out on DVD? This is an important film also in that it shows there is more drama to the swamp as landscape that one would think with all the swamp creature movies out there. Yes, there really are creatures in the swamp, but there are also people, just like us. The brothers are also great and the cinematography is stupendous.

It's hard to even put one's finger on what Konchalovskiy actually thought he was doing because as a whole the film doesn't hold together and looks rather fragmented. Maybe he wanted to do a horror flick or he didn't even have a coherent concept but just went shooting and hoping that something will come out of it? The script has distinctive feeling of an old school Russian theatrical play - too much pathos and sharp separations between formal acts. That damages the flow and makes it look too verbal and melodramatic (which does work for live theater), as if it was used because they (3 writers) didn't have enough ideas for a smooth flow. Also a retard son was a cliché without any purpose or history. The cast was very uneven in quality and makes me think that maybe Konchalovskiy run out of ideas on what do do with actors. Barbara Hershey has done a great job but the character is still monotone and that's a direction flaw (she has done enough very different characters to be able to portray a character transition). Martha Plimpton did well as Grace but it looks like she was left to her own devices and she needed directional help to go from "well" to "great". Jill Clayburgh was abysmal, ruined half of the flick and made me think how would Meryl Strip or Glenn Close make that role fly sky high. Cinematography was way to much of a Chris Menges showing off and not thinking about the whole. In some scenes it looks so artificial that it make you snap out of the flow. Also it's way too much of a flat gray and lacking a range which is a trap that indulgent cinematographers sometimes fall into. Whatever he saw as gradations of gray on the set is lost even on celluloid and turns into a smudge in digital. Portraying eerie requires enough contrast for the audience at large to see visual structure instead of a flat surface. Some thinking and effort to transition from say lush green to foggy to rainy to "vapor above a water" and some testing to check what is realistically discernible on screen with the tech at hand.

This film seems at first pretentious and then very thoughtful. It begins as a shallow magazine photographer and her daughter travel deep into the Bayou to research their family history. As they meet and establish relationships with their cousins, the story evolves into a truly haunting display of modern life vs. isolation, and the ways in which people relate to each other. Barbara Hershey is especially excellent as a tough but deeply loving widow.

This is standard hokum that pits a couple of city folk vs. some backwoods bayou dwellers.This film reminded me alot of "American Gothic",except this isn't supposed to be a horror film.Mare Winningham and Pruitt Taylor Vince have alot of fun portraying a couple of the hillbillies,and are the best part of the film.Jill Clayburgh turns in another in a string of lousy performances.Every performance she gives just seems to have a "TV movie" aura to it.There's also some great cinematography,which makes the film more interesting to watch than it deserves.

Beautiful photography of the Louisiana bayou and excellent performances by Barbara Hershey and the rest of the cast make for a gripping drama. Criticised by some for being melodramatic, this film is more than a comparison of the city and country life. It is also surely an analogy by director Konchalovsky for the Soviet Union progressing through harsh but effective tyranny to a more uncertain and questionable "freedom".