The Farmer's Daughter

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steve d Charming but forgettable. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member The idealistic but hard-working daughter (Loretta Young) of a Swedish-American farmer travels to the capitol to get a nursing degree but winds up working as a servant for a wealthy politician (Joseph Cotten). Thoroughly charming romantic comedy is perhaps a bit too mechanical in its plotting, but is still considerably smarter than much of what passes for rom-com today; Young won the Best Actress Oscar, perhaps more in recognition of her staying power (she'd been around since silent pictures 20 years earlier) than to her fine but hardly revelatory performance; delightful supporting cast includes Ethel Barrymore, Charles Bickford, James Arness and Lex Barker. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Rape is rarely depicted on screen with sensitivity or any real care for how the victim feels beyond a string of exploitative rape-revenge thrillers which serve more to excite creepy sadists in the audience than to show why the experience is so horrific. The Accused manages to avoid feeling like it leers at it's victim in the rape scene that it prominently features and displays two well written, strong female characters coming to understand one another. I appreciated how progressive this film was especially when considering it was released 31 years ago but I would say that it lacks in some areas. Much like Rain Man (1988) I also felt that the wrong leading actor was rewarded for their performance as Kelly McGillis has the much tougher job than Jodie Foster much like Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. Sarah Tobias, Jodie Foster, is gang raped in a bar and is witnessed by several men who cheer on the rape while one man, Kenneth Joyce, Bernie Coulson, is horrified and heads outside to try and contact the police. Tobias is represented by deputy district attorney Kathryn Murphy, Kelly McGillis, who at first accepts a deal in which the men's crimes are accepted as being reckless endangerment instead of rape. This angers Tobias who is later taunted by one of the men who cheered on her rape and Murphy feels that she must prosecute those who encouraged the rape in her guilt. The case is ultimately successful due to the powerful testimony of Joyce and the three men accused of the crime receive prison sentences. The most effective scene in the film is the rape. The story is structured so that we do not see the horrific rape first but instead see it only towards the end of the film when Joyce gives his testimony. We understand how the events escalated to the point at which she was being forced to accept sexual intercourse against her will. We are never encouraged to be titillated by the sight of a drunk vulnerable woman facing an increasing amount of male aggression as she is just looking to blow off some steam after an argument with her deadbeat boyfriend. You do get sickened as you see these men become rabid animals from her perspective and witness other bystanders be excited by this abhorrent act. We feel her pain and cannot help but be outraged by how the legal system has let her down in her fight for justice which only serves to make her victory that much sweeter. What elevates the film above feeling like an extended episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is the performance of McGillis. She is wonderful here as I believed in her strength and steeliness completely while also believing her transformation from hardnosed, cynical lawyer to impassioned supporter of Tobias' cause. When we see her facing off against her bosses or interrogating witnesses in court she does not add that touch of camp that downgrades a Jill Eikenberry or a Kelli Williams from being a film actress. Foster is fine in the showiest role in the film as she is affecting in her big scene on the witness stand but she doesn't quite get the traumatized, battered note that we need to see at the beginning of the film and her characterization sometimes feels flat. Even the supporting cast of Coulson and Scott Paulin are talented and get moments to shine as they reveal how sickened they are at an act of violence or try to sensitively interrogate and discredit a rape victim. Where the film slightly loses itself is in it's development of the personal dramas that the two main characters face. We see Tobias and her loser boyfriend fight and then see her kick him out but had their been even slightly more background to this relationship I might have cared more. Similarly we don't get to see how the privilege that Murphy holds really separates her from the woman she is defending. This is not a masterpiece and I hope we get a better film about the sexual violence that women face in the future but for 1988 this was an important film and a great achievement. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Audience Member The best comedy romance movie ever made! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member I watched this again yesterday. I am a fan of Loretta's from way back, and I wanted to see how well this movie has held up. It was a more innocent time, but I actually think its message is still relevant. This was the year GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT won the Best Picture Oscar, and it was about anti-Semitism. This film is subversive as well, plugging women's and immigrants' rights as well as ridiculing political hacks and corruption. It has a message for today! The cast is impressive. Whenever it is noted that Loretta won the Oscar that year over Rosalind Russell in a big upset, her actual performance is rarely discussed. In fact she is perfect in the role, totally believable and not a bit saccharine despite the whimsical storyline; it reminds me of Frances McDormand's Marge in FARGO, for which she also won the Oscar. Cotten is an underappreciated leading man, and he is totally likable here. The great Ethel Barrymore is both wise and war as his mother, and Bickford is classic. And notice the hunky Lex Barker as one of Katie's brothers! AAll in all this film is a real gem, not an epic but a fine piece of a better and more innocent America! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review jona i Relevant, even more than romantic. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Farmer's Daughter

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