Deep in the Heart (of Texas)

The efforts of a British couple to film a documentary about Austin, Texas locals for British television is the clumsy framing device for this adaptation of In the West, an award-winning regional play comprised of character monologues. Several years in the making and an obvious labor of love, this lurchingly-paced film is only as good as whomever is regaling the audience at the time. The natives include a dissatisfied socialite, a Slingbladette "pie lady" and a gung-ho high school football coach whose profane pep talk includes the displaying of a wound suffered in Vietnam. The probable intimacy of the stage experience is lost in the translation to the screen: the way the film is structured, we are always aware that an actor is making the most of his proverbial fifteen minutes. Even so, this gallery of colorful characters might have played like a Texas Local Hero, but the quirky charm is undercut by Kenneth Cranham, who was saddled with the role of the patronizing and condescending filmmaker. A must for Texas libraries, of course. Elsewhere, this is recommended only as an example of regional filmmaking. (K. Lee Benson)