Falling from Grace

Despite being a lifelong Hoosier and having grown up on the rock music of the '80s, I have never been a John Mellencamp fan. But I liked the clips I saw of his 1992 movie "Falling from Grace" back around the time of its short and very small theatrical release. I missed it at the theaters but got the DVD recently. Having now watched it twice, I already rate it as one of my all time favorites and as real a movie as I've ever seen.

"Falling from Grace" stars Mellencamp – who also directed - as music superstar Bud Parks. Along with his wife, Alice (played by Mariel Hemingway), and their approximately eight-year old daughter, Terri Jo (Melissa Ann Hackman), Bud flies from Los Angeles to his fictional hometown, Doak City, Indiana, for his paternal grandfather's 80th birthday. Grandpa Parks (Dub Taylor), who remains girl crazy despite his age and the accompanying ailments, and being married, provides some early comic relief with his crude but jolly personality. But the movie quickly becomes very serious and stays so almost the entire rest of the way.

Bud receives a hero's welcome from family and fans. But what is supposed to be just a three day visit of fun turns into something much more. The night of the party, his high school sweetheart and now sister-in-law, P.J. (Kay Lenz), invites him out on a walk, which is met with curious suspicion by his father, Speck (Claude Aikins). During the walk, P.J. says she has sex with Speck, which is met with shock and disapproval by Bud.

Speck, a successful poultry farmer, is shown early on to be a chauvinistic and dominating womanizer. He fathered an illegitimate son but his wife, Marian (Joanne Jacobson), stayed with him. Speck refers to himself as a sire and the women who bore his children as fillies. And as the movie progresses, he's continually revealed to be even more dominating, violent, exploitive and shameless.

Bud and Alice seem to have a good marriage and she is clearly very devoted to him. But shortly after learning of P.J.'s affair with Speck, Bud has sex with her, too. P.J. seems to view her sexual encounters as conquests and take pride in simultaneously having three Parks men as lovers. She also seems to view her promiscuity, and the need to keep it secret, as a source of excitement for a housewife and mother who resides in what she considers to be a boring town.

Soon, the three days turn into several weeks. Bud's feelings of both love and lust for P.J. are rekindled and he neglects Alice. And, already disillusioned by the music business and thinking about leaving it, he realizes that he's a small town man at heart and wants to stay in Doak City, where many of his relatives still reside. His anger toward his father – over Speck's affair with P.J., sexual advance at Alice and lack of fatherly support over the years - also escalates.

Meanwhile, California bred Alice continues to love her husband but quickly becomes tired of small town life and his neglect. She suspects that he's cheating on her, which he doesn't deny. She decides to return to California with Terri Jo.

Shortly after Alice leaves, Bud tries to get P.J. back as the woman of his life. She reveals that she wanted that many years earlier but that he wouldn't make a commitment and it's too late now.

In response, Bud turns to the wild and reckless ways of his youth. And, as is often the case because of bad old human nature, it takes a traumatic and humbling experience to remind him what's most important in his life.

One mistake that rock star movies often make is turning the movie into little more than a music video. "Falling from Grace" completely avoids that trap. Throughout the movie, Bud is never shown in concert. And only in one brief scene on his father's porch is he shown playing guitar. And most of the music in the movie is performed by other artists. If you saw this movie and didn't know who Mellencamp was, you'd probably guess that he's a regular actor, not a musician.

Furthermore, a vast majority of the situations in the movie could easily happen to anyone in mid-America, not just someone famous. As I wrote above, this is as real a movie as I've ever seen. Every word of Larry McMurtry's screenplay, every character, every situation is completely believable and brought out to the fullest by Mellencamp's uncompromising direction.

Some might downplay Mellencamp's performance, saying that he is largely playing himself. And, indeed, he and Bud are very similar. Both are crass, cynical, modestly educated but very street smart, and bluntly honest. Two differences are that Bud is less arrogant – perhaps the result of having such a dominating father – and much better about signing autographs than is Mellencamp.

Still, even with the similarities, Mellencamp is outstanding in his role as is most of the cast. In particular, Aikins is chilling as the predator behind the smile is gradually revealed.

And to top it off, small town Indiana culture is portrayed with absolute perfection, right down to every detail – the accents, figures of speech, personalities, values, scenery and more. This movie was filmed in Seymour, Indiana, Mellencamp's hometown. I grew up in Madison, a similar town just 43 miles away. Every character in the movie reminds me strongly of people who I knew during my childhood.

Those who aren't very experienced with Indiana culture probably won't appreciate "Falling from Grace" stylistically as much as I do. But anyone with much life experience should appreciate it substantively. What a shame that this movie has gotten so little publicity over the years and that it didn't start a big movie career for Mellencamp. It's a buried treasure worth searching for. 9/10.

Celebrity singers have always had a tough time breaking into the movies (the cinema is littered with failed attempts), and one can go on and on speculating as to why John Mellencamp never made it as an actor (to say nothing of his skills as a novice filmmaker). Instead of taking small parts in heartfelt projects, Mellencamp dives right in playing the lead in "Falling From Grace", which he also directed, and the awkward results are as unbecoming as the film's title. Story of a famous singer returning to his hometown in the sticks, opening up old family wounds, boasts a screenplay by Larry McMurtry, but the meandering drama goes nowhere slowly. The decent supporting cast includes quirky Kay Lenz (always a welcome sight), Mariel Hemingway and Claude Akins, and yet there's only one well-directed scene in the movie (when Akins attempts to force himself on Hemingway in the kitchen). John's performance is a mixed bag; he doesn't look particularly comfortable in front of the camera--despite the apparent effort to make him feel at home--and he never makes a direct connection with the audience. Still, this was a bold move for the performer, and the ballsy effort alone results in a bit of admiration. *1/2 from ****

I watched this movie because Richard Roeper said that it was a "hidden gem" and that he had offered a "money back guarantee" to anyone who didn't like the movie. He said this on an episode of "At the Movies" where Mellencamp was the guest reviewer.

Anyway...I'm not going to demand my money back from Roeper, but I thought the movie was only so-so. I agree with others who thought the beginning was much stronger than the end. I also thought that the movie didn't adequately resolve the (admittedly difficult) problem of how to convey the numbing boredom of small-town life without itself being boring.

Some good moments, but overall too clichéd and too pat an ending. I do agree that it was WONDERFUL to see the great Claude Akins and Dub Taylor.

John Mellencamp debuts as star and director in this feature about a country-western star who returns to his home in Indiana. He's tired of the grind of performing, tired of Los Angeles, and hopes to reconnect with roots, but discovers that you can't go home again.

It's a decent little movie, low-key in its performances, with Mellencamp working off a script by Larry McMurtry, and with a good cast that includes Mariel Hemingway, Dub Taylor, Kay Lenz and Claude Akins. Mellencamp doesn't sing, but he gives a solid performance.

This one was OK, more on the lines of a good made for TV movie than anything else. It was great to see Dub Taylor and Claude Akins working together one last time, though I got a kick outta their being father/son, Dub was born in '07 and Sheriff Lobo there 11 years lator.

Wonder what they thought about being directed by a rock singer? Oh well.

The film is okay for what it is, Mellencamp plays himself(gone country), not too terribly but is def. no actor. He hangs around the small town homestead, gets in a bar fight with Sheriff Lobo(dad), shoots of a gun or three, messes around with old flame Kay Lenz and drives wife Mariel Hemingway nuts. He talks about coming back to stay and his cronies say 'go back, you don't belong here, you got out, we don't want you here', more or less.

And there is a stunt involving riding in a cage of sorts in the back of a truck, kicking it off the back and watching Mellencamp go richocheting around the pavement behind said truck, caught in the bashed in cage and brush. He winds up in the hospital.

Some critics loved this-Siskel and Ebert, for example, and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone. Boston Globe thought it was okay too. Lyons, Medved and Maltin all hated it.

I sorta liked it, as a big Mellencamp fan-and will give it ** for Mellencamps decent direction and seeing Akins/Dub one last time. But the rest is only so so. Okay music too.