Ironweed (1987)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 143 minuten
Alternative title: In Voor- en Tegenspoed
Country:
United States
Directed by: Hector Babenco
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Carroll Baker
IMDb score:
6,7 (10.640)
Releasedate: 18 December 1987
Ironweed plot
"Hard times and Good times. Francis and Helen."
Halloween, 1938. Francis Phelan and Helen Archer are two alcoholic, hopeless figures, who wander the bleak streets of Albany, New York. Francis sank deeply after a dramatic event from his past, for which he can never forgive himself. Once a popular singer, Helen is now living out her days as a bum. Together they try to survive in the cold, inhospitable city. Will they be able to make peace with their past? Can they distance themselves from the death that lurks everywhere?
Actors and actresses
Francis Phelan
Helen Archer
Annie Phelan
Billy
Peg
Oscar Reo
Katrina
Rudy
Pee Wee
Harold Allen
Reviews & comments
scorsese
-
- 13155 messages
- 11068 votes
Good film in which a man and a woman have been supporting each other for years in their vagabond existence. The film is set during the great depression and is also quite depressing in tone. A bit long-winded, but this is compensated by enough beautiful and also touching moments. Moreover, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep are both very strong here.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Filmkriebel
-
- 9955 messages
- 4647 votes
Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep in a movie. What movie lover wouldn't want to see this, I wonder? Babenco is a director who is best known for portraying characters on the edge of the abyss. This time, two alcoholic homeless people in the person of Francis Phelan and Helen Archer. Both live a dehumanizing existence on the streets of Albany in the late 1930s. The question you have to ask yourself is: what is at the root of their misery? The film asks for understanding and compassion for both of them and succeeds in making them human, because the family name of the homeless no longer exists, and they seem to have no past, or let me say, a past they would rather forget.
Nicholson and Streep may not be delivering the performances of their careers, but they certainly know how to play the audience. The scene where Helen has to sing a song in a pub is brilliantly delivered; the scene where Francis is briefly reunited with the family he abandoned years ago was also very moving. You see people searching for dignity. From Babenco you mainly get pessimism and melodrama with some magical realism and a ray of sunshine, but how else can you treat such a subject honestly? Strong film in any case.
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