Thornton Wilder's turn-of-the-20th-century set Pulitzer Prize-winning play serves up a heartwarming vision of the New England community of Grover's Corners, following--in particular--the maturation and growing attachment between the teenagers George Gibbs and Emily Webb, against the backdrop of small-town life as revealed by the omniscient stage manager “narrator,” wonderfully portrayed in this PBS-aired 2003 Broadway mounting by Paul Newman. While the Emmy-winning 1977 American Playhouse version starring Hal Holbrook in the stage manager role remains, for me, the definitive version, this latest Our Town fares better than the 1989 Tony-award winner starring the late Spalding Gray or Sam Wood's 1940 film adaptation (or even the recent touring stage production with Tom Skerritt). Ben Fox and Maggie Lacey are both excellent as George and Emily, with Frank Converse and Jayne Atkinson, and Jeffrey DeMunn and Jane Curtin, shining as their respective parents. Director James Naughton wisely retains Wilder's purposefully artificial stage conventions (losing only the smoke ‘em if you got ‘em line between acts to maintain a seamless presentation). Exquisitely capturing life's universal joys, sorrows, and small-town “pleasures of a kind,” Our Town remains a timeless classic, one of the finest entries in the pantheon of 20th-century American drama, and this handsome production does the play proud indeed. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a text interview with Naughton, Newman, and executive producer Joanne Woodward, as well as a web-accessible teacher's guide and expanded production notes. Bottom line: a nice supplemental online curriculum package helps illuminate an American classic.] (R. Pitman)
Our Town
Paramount, 120 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99 Volume 20, Issue 3
Our Town
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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