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Ulee's Gold, Victor Nunez's quiet, lyrical new film, already seems destined
to put its star, Peter Fonda, back on the map as a major acting force. In
it, Mr. Fonda gives a truly lovely, heart-felt performance as Ulysses
Jackson, a solitary beekeeper in the tupelo marshes of the Florida
Panhandle. Deeply scarred from his past (mostly notably his experiences in
Vietnam and the recent death of his adored wife), Ulee wants no more than
to be left alone, quietly working with his bees and looking after his two
granddaughters Penny (Vanessa Zima) and Casey (Jessica Biel). The Zen-like
stillness and slowness that is necessary in beekeeping is anything but an
avocational hazard for Ulee; not only does it suit his withdrawn response
to the world, but he's a natural at it. Ulee's honey business thrives in
direct and equal proportion to his success at avoiding dysfunctional
entanglements with the rest of his family. This chiefly means his
jail-recidivist son Jimmy (Tom Wood) and Jimmy's wife Helen (Christine
Dunford) the runaway wife of Jimmy and mother of the girls.
Jackson's less-than-healthy but altogether tolerable calm is one day shattered by a phone call from Jimmy, with the news that Helen is in trouble and it's up to Ulee to travel to Orlando to bring her back home. As you can imagine, the two girls are as ambivalent about their mother's return as Ulee himself is. And so, a plot is set into motion, which involves some hidden money, Jimmy's two former partners in crime Eddie (Steven Flynn) and Ferris (Dewey Weber), and a good-hearted neighboring nurse, Connie (Patricia Richardson), who first comes on the scene to help with Helen's classic (and violent) drug-withdrawal symptoms. Connie herself has her own slightly mysterious unhappy past and a bond is immediately felt between her and Ulee, just teetering on the edge of romance. |
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It doesn't take a genius in screenwriting to figure out at this early point
that dealing with his son and daughter-in-law will force Ulee back into the
world of the living and that the attentions of the lovely if slightly
melancholic Connie will be instrumental in that process as well. If I have
any marked criticism of the film at all, it's that the inevitable familial
reconciliation in the final moments is arrived at just a tad too easily and
suddenly. But what makes Ulee's Gold the small gem it is has nothing to do
with its plot. It's the subtle, incremental layering of Ulee's response to
sudden, unwanted complication in his life and how he deals with it, all
carefully observed and captured by Director Nunez. And what is particularly
striking for an American film (and so refreshing) is the tonality achieved
here: a quiet, contemplative stillness which the film manages to maintain
for nearly two hours without ever being boring in the conventional sense.
Much of the credit for this must go to the actors. It is an all-around superb ensemble, carefully working off each other in an emotionally honest, unpushed, behavioral way, and it's a pleasure to watch. I particularly liked Patricia Robinson's Connie in the way she mixed her perky, no-nonsense professional nurse persona with her actual off-work, much more unsure-of- herself state. Her tentative, off-and-on-again emotional moves towards Ulee are totally credible and moving. Of course, it's ultimately Mr. Fonda's film, and anyone who still sees him as a counter-cultural type (or at least, as a bad guy) will never think of him in the same way again after this thoughtful, utterly internalized performance. |
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Mr. Fonda was in town recently to talk about Ulee's Gold. Charming,
loquacious, and seemingly the very opposite of his character, I
none-the-less had the impression that perhaps his chattiness was a cover-up
for the same basic shyness that Ulee exhibits, but that Fonda simply
chooses to mask in the opposite way. This led me to speculate about his
relationship with his legendary father Henry Fonda, to whom Peter
increasingly bears a remarkable resemblance. Here are some excerpts from
our conversation:
UD: You've said you see a lot of your father in the character of Ulee. Can you talk about that? PF: The way my dad was in real life of course was totally different from the way you all perceived him on screen or on stage. He could get up on stage or screen and have a conversation, but at home it was hard for him. He was very, very shy. And I saw that in Ulee's character. I realized that this man was a lot like how my father was for all of his life until the end. He was quiet, he didn't say much, he'd become more and more uneasy the more we would all demand he talk to us. Poor guy. But ultimately everything was fine. I had - what's the buzzword, closure? I had great closure with my dad. One of the last things he said on the planet - he looked at me and said, "I want you to know son that I love you very much." I mean, I'm very sad he died, of course. But I didn't have any anger or angst. It was fine, I got to see him go. And that was important for me, I didn't get to do that with my Mom. UD: Do you see much of yourself in this character? PF: Yes, the quiet side of me. Quiet is perfect, quiet is great. Actually, the bees helped with that. They were great. I was able to do a bio-feedback with myself in order to be very calm around them. Because if you get excited, they get excited. UD: The bees notwithstanding, I'm sure your theater background and working with Lee Strasberg also helped a lot... PF: Yes. You know, Lee Strasberg once told me I don't want you going into the Studio, they'll just break you down in there. Because I was an emotionally fragile person at that time in my life. So I saw him privately six to ten times and I understood exactly what he meant by emotional recall and bringing things up that are really inside you and making it convincing. It's in the eyes. One of the hardest things you can do on screen is to say I love you because here's the proscenium (bringing his hand up to his eyes and making a viewfinder). It's located in the windows to your soul and you have to be able to believe it. My daughter put it beautifully when she said, "Well, you know Dad, actors are really only pathological liars." I said, "Well, we don't have to be 24 hours a day, you know." "Oh no!" she jumped in, "I mean when it's action time. You believe what you're saying, and if the camera keeps rolling, you can keep on talking and give a whole back story and everything." And she's absolutely right. UD: Speaking of Bridget, what did you think of her going into acting? PF: I thought it was hysterical! We were strolling along, after her graduation, after the ceremony, and she said "Dad, I want to be an actor." I said, "Don't you ever say that again. It's a verb, not a noun. Now where are you going to study acting?" "UCLA?" "No, " I said, "That's tanning 101. And USC is superior tanning 101. You should go to Princeton or Yale." "Oh no, no Dad, no no!" "I'm gonna send you to NYU and there's Needle Park right there!" (laughter) Oh my God, my poor daughter, so she went to NYU, and I told her to get into everyone's student film you can, you know, get used to being in front of the camera. UD: Did you have a feeling all along she'd take this route? PF: Well, I knew she had presence and this is the first requirement in terms of performing on stage, whether you're a stand-up comedian or a Shakespearean actor. You have to have presence. And then you need talent. Talent is something you then work on, it's serious business. UD: What slot does acting now take in your life? Would you rather be at home? PF: Oh no, I'm enjoying this. To begin with, it's a good film, so I get to go out and promote a good film. And I understand the part of business in show business. UD: But I know you have a whole other life out in the mid-West that you find quite satisfying. PF: Oh yes, very satisfying. I've been married to my second wife 22 years. My two sons graduated from high school and they developed into hayseeds - I can't tell you how wonderful that is! They're not into gangs, they're not into drugs. So we have this wonderful family. Bridget, she's so cool, and Justin - well, the first time I worked with him, just having him there working the slate, was such a thrill. He's a cameraman, which I think is just great - they work more often than actors! UD: What's next? PF: Good question! More of this. Helping this film get noticed so that it gets a chance to be seen. We're the little David with all these great Goliath's out there. And I've seen Lost World, and it's an on-the-edge-of -your-seat-from-the-get-go film. And if you're 8 or eighty, you jump at the right time and it's exactly what it's supposed to be. And we're this little David. But I know in my pouch, in my sling I've got a gem to throw. A real gem. And I'm so thrilled. UD: Thank you Mr. Fonda. |
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