Violets are Blue

This is just another attempt in American movies to create the false allusion of a moral dilemma out of obvious, unmistaking immoral behavior. Once again I watched a Hollywood movie some described as a love story and others described as a a tear jerker about a married man (or woman) having an affair and how this is supposed to be OK in certain situations, namely the one in this movie. It is just like the countless similar moral dilemmas Hollywood churns out with priests and reverands and ministers and preachers doing the same thing. Almost always these "dilemmas" involve sex or affaires.This movie opens with a beautiful Sissy Spacek and a beautiful Kevin Kline in the beautiful beach town of Eastern Shore, Virginia. It is summer. They are crazy and kinda crazy in lust or love--we can't really tell as it is almost portrayed as two kids rebelling as they dream separate dreams of a future for themselves. The knowing and willing (and almost casually) just part ways. We don't see Kevin's character's life unfold. But we see Sissy's as she goes from being a flight attendant to a photographer. She comes back. They run into each other. They can't wait to get their hands on each other. And after he invites his ex-girlfriend to his home to have dinner with his wife and kid he walks Sissy back and they go at it under a pier. It continues and Kevin's character doesn't even seem to be bothered by his wife's torment at "knowing" this is going on or at his kid's sadness that something is going on in his family. That is secondary.I won't spoil the ending for you in this review. But it didn't save this movie for me.This is a very typical Hollywood movie. And it is very typically 80s where certain groups of society had no qualms about this behavior and wanted to "enlighten" the rest of us who know it is wrong and still today see it as wrong no matter what the situation.I do think the acting was good. And as I said Kevin and Sissy are beautiful--skinny, fit, natural looking Americans like Americans used to be. The families are great actors and the dialogue was written well. The scenery even if it was not filmed in VA or not was beautiful.It was the plot that was a huge turn off to me. And it didn't ellicit a sad emotion from me or angry one at that. I was just indifferent at watching two spoiled self-centered people wreck other people's lives as it happens every day and what can you do? In this case I can turn off the movie and warn other like minded folks of it, which is what I am doing here.

This story takes place in Ocean City, Maryland and is about a young couple very much in love who separate to pursue career ambitions. Gussie Sawyer (Sissy Spacek) goes to exotic and violent locations around the world as a photo journalist. Her lover Henry Squires (Kevin Kline} takes over the local newspaper after his father passes. He also gets Ruth (Bedelia) pregnant marries and has a son. This is a gem of a movie analyzing a love that will not go down easy even though Henry and Gussie have a fifteen year stretch when they apparently don' t have any contact at all. Sissy Spacek has acting magic. I have never seen a movie with her in it that turned out badly. 'The River' and 'Carrie' are good examples. She seems to act from a level deep insider her simply becoming her character. Kevin is not far behind with the heart retching "Life as a House" and many others. Bonnie Bedelia and Jim Strandiford show some class acting also. I have to congratulate Naomi Foner and Jack Fisk for their work as writer and director. The barroom scene where the argument takes place is well set up and captures some vernacular about the ecology and the growing building business in the town. Don't miss this one!. It is from the human heart, right down to the last song by Laura Brannigan. The Horses on Assateague and the flat out catamaran race are a thrill to watch.

I've seen Violets are Blue many years ago and it still has the same impact as when I originally saw it, It's a fantastic movie with powerful performances by Spacey and Kline!!! John Kellogg also turns in an unforgettable performance as a caring dad who tells it like it is. I'll certainly watch again. In his review of the movie, in part, Roger Ebert wrote, "It's a movie about adults making some hard choices, facing some inflexible realities in their lives. And when it's over we realize it caused us to think about a couple of things: not only the road not chosen, but also the road that we have chosen and our responsibilities to it."The cherry on top is Laura Branigan singing 'One Day' at the end of the movie!! See for yourself!

I had owned this years ago on VHS, and kept wishing it would come out on DVD. Of course, it finally did, as seen here. The story starts out great, youthful romance in Ocean City, MD., and on Assateague Island. There are some really nice sailing sequences, as well. I think part of what I liked was that the time frames involved, they were late teens in 1969, matched my own age. There was a big nostalgia factor, as well- a beat up VW beetle for transportation, only $2. for a minimalist's days outing, fairly small open boat to sail from the mainland to the island. Now, as to why I only gave it 3 stars: it starts out strong, with that aforementioned nostalgia factor for me, very good cinematography and so on, but when the two key characters encounter each other again, something around 15 years later, the plot is just not as strong. It becomes sort of soap opera-ish near the end. I wish that I could say just what would improve it, but I really am not sure. Acting was, I thought, fairly good, with Bonnie Bedelia doing her supporting role particularly well. Cinematography was generally good, though I wished they had continued to take advantage of the great scenery throughout, which was kind of dropped about halfway through. More emotion out of the characters in the later stages might have done a bit to make it better, there seemed to be only brief flashes of what I expect would have been rather intense emotion under the circumstances. The 3 stars kind of says it. Note also that this DVD is over $20. on a limited production run, if price is a factor, I might think twice on this one.

I love Kevine Kline & Sissy Spacek, so what's not to like about this movie? I love it!

Such a great movie about personnal choices ....