You have to feel bad for the Hollywood actress: they start out as the love interest, graduate to playing mothers & wives and then- after that certain age- are relegated to playing only lunatics and monsters. Ask Bette Davis & Joan Crawford.
Okay, so Lucille Ball may not be playing a monster here, but she's definitely in the neighborhood. She stars as Florabelle, a tough-as-nails homeless woman roaming the streets of New York with her shopping cart. Daphne Zuniga shows up in the movie & gives one of the most blank, hollow, and forgetful performances in the history of film. The writing doesn't help: why does Daphne pretend to be homeless in order to befriend Flora? Um, I forget. And the end credits are still running.
The question of the day, of course, is how was Lucy's performance? Well, it was good but not great. She's believable but has nothing to work with in terms of story or other characters. The movie is full of schmaltz and heavy-handed social messages. The direction & writing is amateurish & silly: characters wear glasses only so they can pull them off to make a dramatic point, and most people are so humorless & sanctimonious about homeless people being "the same as you and me," that you'll roll your eyes at least a couple times.
The movie ends on a particularly-syrupy sequence: Flora, rescued from the streets, takes her first steps in the garden of her new home, arms wide, face beaming, overjoyed, enraptured: making mimes blush. She falls to her knees and scoops a handful of soil from the ground- HER soil!- putting it up to her face and sniffing it. Daphne Zuniga watches her in the cutaway, smiling but showing no genuine emotion. We cut back to Flora & mercifully freeze-frame & fade to black before she starts eating the dirt. Yuzz.
Am I being harsh on this movie? Yes. It was intended as an evening's entertainment and a vehicle for the great Lucille Ball. But as I was watching Lucy play gritty and real I realized: I don't want her gritty & real... I like her better when she's making me laugh. I won't remember Lucy unattractive and old as a homeless woman... I will remember her young and pretty and hilarious from her TV days. You can afford to miss "Stone Pillow."
GRADE: D
Okay, so Lucille Ball may not be playing a monster here, but she's definitely in the neighborhood. She stars as Florabelle, a tough-as-nails homeless woman roaming the streets of New York with her shopping cart. Daphne Zuniga shows up in the movie & gives one of the most blank, hollow, and forgetful performances in the history of film. The writing doesn't help: why does Daphne pretend to be homeless in order to befriend Flora? Um, I forget. And the end credits are still running.
The question of the day, of course, is how was Lucy's performance? Well, it was good but not great. She's believable but has nothing to work with in terms of story or other characters. The movie is full of schmaltz and heavy-handed social messages. The direction & writing is amateurish & silly: characters wear glasses only so they can pull them off to make a dramatic point, and most people are so humorless & sanctimonious about homeless people being "the same as you and me," that you'll roll your eyes at least a couple times.
The movie ends on a particularly-syrupy sequence: Flora, rescued from the streets, takes her first steps in the garden of her new home, arms wide, face beaming, overjoyed, enraptured: making mimes blush. She falls to her knees and scoops a handful of soil from the ground- HER soil!- putting it up to her face and sniffing it. Daphne Zuniga watches her in the cutaway, smiling but showing no genuine emotion. We cut back to Flora & mercifully freeze-frame & fade to black before she starts eating the dirt. Yuzz.
Am I being harsh on this movie? Yes. It was intended as an evening's entertainment and a vehicle for the great Lucille Ball. But as I was watching Lucy play gritty and real I realized: I don't want her gritty & real... I like her better when she's making me laugh. I won't remember Lucy unattractive and old as a homeless woman... I will remember her young and pretty and hilarious from her TV days. You can afford to miss "Stone Pillow."
GRADE: D