Foxfire

Based on the play by Susan Cooper and star Hume Cronyn, which in turn was based on the stories related in the Foxfire series of books, this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation (which garnered 8 Emmy nominations) stars real-life husband and wife Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. Tandy plays Annie Nations, a Rabun County, Georgia resident who owns a decent spread up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her husband, Hector (Cronyn), has been dead for five years. But that doesn't stop Annie from seeking his advice, more so now that a real estate developer is set on convincing her to sell the land that they loved so much together. When Annie's country-singer son Dillard (John Denver) shows up for a local concert, mother and son reminisce about the old days and old ways of the strict, but honest, loyal, and upstanding Hector. In reliving the past, Annie tries to come to grips with the present (letting go of Hector) and her questions about the future (whether she should move to Florida with Dillard). Granted, there is more than a smidgeon of sentimentality and semi-mawkishness in the story and dialogue. However, the bumpy sections are only really evident when Denver's onscreen; Cronyn and Tandy are absolute pros, and they make the soft stuff play in ways that singer Denver is just not trained to do. Tandy, a consummate actress is radiant as Annie Nations, and she brings a life's repertoire of emotions and feelings to the role, creating a living, breathing, and always compelling character. And Cronyn is wonderful as the crotchety ghost with an aphorism always at hand ("I'm gonna live just as long as I see anybody else living.") Following the movie, a featurette entitled "The Making of Foxfire," which describes how a group of high school kids who recorded oral histories from rural mountain folk went on to become a publishing phenomenon, as well as how the movie Foxfire was made. Recommended. (R. Pitman)