The acting by Wilkinson, Tomei, and Spacek is superb, as most comments have noted. The movie is slow to begin with, but that is why TV can never replace moviehouses: knowing that the audience cannot leave, a director can afford to take time to develop a story. Truly most real stories do not gein with some big incident, but creep and creep until they suddenly seem fill our world. The greatest problem with the film, however, is in its class politics. Everybody in the movie is middle class to upper middle class: the central family is that of the town doctor; The lobster fishing community is quite well off; and, most importantly, the murderer comes from a very wealthy family. Let me repeat this -- the murderer's family owns a local factory, is able to post substantial bail, and pays good alimony to his estranged wife.
And yet the murderer is presented a working class white trash. His body is ungainly, his clothes are slovenly, he drives a pick-up, and he has cheap overdone highlights in his hair. In other words, this Maine-born son of the towns main employers is made to come across like a New Yorker or Los Angeleno's worst fantasy of violent white trash.
Why -- that is a problem.
And yet the murderer is presented a working class white trash. His body is ungainly, his clothes are slovenly, he drives a pick-up, and he has cheap overdone highlights in his hair. In other words, this Maine-born son of the towns main employers is made to come across like a New Yorker or Los Angeleno's worst fantasy of violent white trash.
Why -- that is a problem.