Cast: Kris Kristofferson, Barbara Hershey, Leelee Sobieski, Jesse Bradford, Anthony Ruth Costanzo,
Dominique Blanc, Virginie Ledoyen, Samuel Gruen, Luisa Conlon
Director: James Ivory
Producer: Ismail Merchant
Screenplay: James Ivory, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on the novel by Kaylie Jones
Cinematography: Jean-Marc Fabre
Music: Richard Robbins
U.S. Distributor: October Films
Merchant-Ivory (the film making team comprised of Ismail Merchant and James Ivory) is probably best known for their somewhat austere tales of life in England. One could be forgiven for the assumption that every Merchant-Ivory film features Helena Bonham Carter (A Room with a View, Howards End), Emma Thompson (Howards End, The Remains of the Day), and/or Anthony Hopkins (Howards End, The Remains of the Day, Surviving Picasso). Acting has always been a hallmark of Merchant-Ivory films -- the best of them are driven more by characters than by plot. However, since the opening of 1993's The Remains of the Day, Merchant-Ivory has been in a skid. Their 1995 and 1996 features, Jefferson in Paris and Surviving Picasso, have been disappointing affairs - the former being an historical soap opera and the latter an uneven portrait of genius. For their 1998 movie, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Merchant and Ivory (along with longtime screenwriting partner Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) have turned their attention to the late-'60s and early-'70s and the semi-autobiographical tale of Kaylie Jones (the daughter of novelist James Jones, who wrote From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line). With this release, Merchant-Ivory is back in peak form.
These days, most movies about families deal with deep dysfunctions and hidden secrets - parents who are alienated from their children, brothers and sisters who don't get along, incestuous relationships, etc. For those looking for a change-of-pace, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries offers the opportunity. This film is about a loving, united family that endures good times and hardships together. It's not an overbearing, saccharine story, but a realistic portrait of characters who are bound together by affection, respect, and shared experiences. What's even more amazing is that it transpires during the period between 1964 and 1973, when social upheaval was tearing many families apart (see Ang Lee's The Ice Storm for that kind of narrative). But not the Willis', an expatriate American clan living in Paris. In addition to adults Bill (Kris Kristofferson) and Marcella (Barbara Hershey), there are two children: Channe (short for "Charlotte Anne," and played by Luisa Conlon at an early age and Leelee Sobieski later), the couple's biological daughter, and Billy (Samuel Gruen turning into Jesse Bradford), their adopted son.
When we first meet Channe, the movie's emotional center, she's a fourth-grader who can't spell "gym." Like many foreigners who spend nearly their entire life caught between two cultures, she isn't sure whether she's French or American. The same is true of Billy, who is more introverted than his sister. We follow these two as they grow up, with the innocence of childhood giving way to the awkwardness of adolescence. When Bill's health begins to fail, he moves his family to Long Island, where he intends to live out his final years. There, in their new school, Channe and Billy are treated as outsiders. She starts having indiscriminate sex with boys because she can't make friends. He is taunted and teased, and, instead of developing a social life, he spends his free time vegetating in front of the television.
With roles in Blade and Dance with Me, Kris Kristofferson is big this year. And, while Kristofferson has been known to turn in a wooden performance from time-to-time, such is not the case for A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, where he finds the right balance between gruffness and kindness. Kristofferson manages to radiate caring, intelligence, sensitivity, and stubbornness all at the same time, making Bill the kind of man that everyone would like to have as a father. Opposite him, Barbara Hershey is solid as Marcella, although her colorful character never captures our sympathy quite the way Bill does.
As Channe, Leelee Sobieski (who had the thankless job of playing Elijah Wood's girlfriend in Deep Impact) shows that she has a bright future. Sobieski, who bears a startling resemblance to a young Helen Hunt, is equally good with nuances and overt drama. It's through Channe that the viewer enters the movie, and Sobieski has no trouble drawing us in. Jesse Bradford (Balthasar in the recent Romeo + Juliet) is fine as the moody, taciturn Billy, although his portrayal is less arresting than Sobieski's.
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries features several noteworthy supporting performances. Luisa Conlon, the child actor who plays the young Channe for almost 40 minutes, is believable and effective, and is enough like Sobieski in appearance and manner that the transition is seamless. Anthony Ruth Costanzo plays Francis, Channe's extravagant, effeminate best friend in Paris. And Dominique Blanc (Queen Margot, Indochine) is Candida, the Willis' maid, who is like a second mother or big sister to Channe. (One slight flaw in the film is that it never satisfactorily resolves Candida's story.) French beauty Virginie Ledoyen (A Single Girl) has a small role as Billy's birth-mother.
Someone once said that the reason there are so many movies about dysfunctional families is because those are the only kinds of families capable of holding an audience's attention. A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries disproves that theory. Not only was I touched by the characters and engrossed by their story during the 120 minutes they were on screen, but I could have easily spent another hour or two with them. A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries doesn't tell of anything big or earthshaking, but, in its careful portrayal of life, it offers something equally precious - an insight into the human experience.
© 1998 James Berardinelli