Sommersby (1993)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Crappy film

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

One of my favorite films. Just a note to the viewers who have questioned the role of a "black judge" during this period of history. They certainly existed and handled all manner of cases. A note from an article in the NY Times follows: Special Correspondence THE NEW YORK TIMES.February 8, 1903, SundayPage 34, 859 wordsCHARLESTON, S. C., Feb. 5. -- During the reconstruction period in South Carolina, which followed the close of the civil war, the management of State affairs for a time was left to the tender mercies of the Negro. Officers who served with the Governor were Negroes, there were Negro Judges, and practically every county in the State had its black representatives in the General Assembly. [ END OF FIRST PARAGRAPH ]

If you believe this story, I have some swampland in New Jersey I'd like to sell you. Hey, it's right near Atlantic City! C'mon, now....really....a man (Richard Gere) comes home from the Civil War and claims to be Jodie Foster's husband. He had been presumed dead. The whole movie is the story of whether she can figure out it's really him or not - even when they are naked in bed! Yeah, right! What an insult to anyone's intelligence. Don't waste your time with this lemon.For those who think this is "intelligent," I hope your lobotomy went well! I hope the original (this is a re-make) "The Return Of Martin Guerre," was better than this.

a lot of my family and many friends were extras in this movie(it was shot in the court house in my home town). my uncle, father, and a few teachers and acquaintances are clearly shown in the court scene, and the guy who says "hear ye, hear ye" is definitely one of my neighbors. (it's funny, he got credit for that). but at the end of the movie you can see my grandmother, twice. When Jodie foster is running through the crowd screaming "jack, jack", you see my grandmothers face take up nearly all the screen. it flashes to a view of Richard about to be hung, and then shoots back to Jodie running into, and around, my grandmother a second time. isn't' it obvious that they used the same shot twice? you think they'd try not to do that same one in a 5 second slot.

It would have made a great Twilight Zone episode. A man returns home after a six-year absence caused by the Civil War. He's the same man, and yet not the same. He's been taking lessons from Deepak Chopra or somebody because whereas before his departure he was a scumbag he has now turned into a populist hero of the Frank Capra brand. Is he an impostor? If so, why? And why doesn't the wife he comes home to recognize it? Why doesn't the entire VILLAGE see that he's a different guy? Six years isn't so long. When I look in the mirror I see the same Adonis I was six years ago, as good as ever. Better even.The most interesting features of this movie would have turned on the mystery of the new Sommersby trying to adjust to the life of the old. Yes, he's kinder, and maybe a better lover, and his shoe size seems to have changed. But that's about it.The bulk of the movie deals with a kind of love triangle between Richard Gere as Sommersby, Jody Foster as his wife, and Bill Pullman as a neighbor who had hoped to take Sommersby's place after a suitable period.We have to sit through scenes of Gere and Foster falling more deeply in love, and learning to trust each other (and then not trusting, and then trusting again, and then not trusting, and finally trusting again). I hope that came out right. I was a little confused after a while.The courtroom scene, in which Sommersby is charged with murdering someone, REALLY was confusing. A witness is brought in who claims to have know Gere when he was not Sommersby but somebody named Horace or something. This other Gere was a con man who pretended to be someone else, insinuate himself into the trust of his new community, gather up all their treasure for an economic venture -- maybe getting a town belle preggers -- and then take off, leaving them flat.And then -- well, I don't think I'll divulge the conclusion of the story here because I still don't know what the conclusion is. I THINK Gere is actually Horace and that Horace killed the original Sommersby, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.Nothing wrong with the performances or the direction. The music is a little soupy, the photography surprisingly fuzzy and unsunny, and the plot as murky as a pot o' skoosh.I suspect the audience could have swallowed that initial implausibility -- Gere posing as a non-Gere after such a short absence -- if it had led to further curious incidents casting doubt on his identity. Not just the shrunken shoe size. The writers could have thrown in a shrunken hat size as well. Or his wife might have noticed something about him at night. Well -- let that go. Yes. All in all, it would have been a great Twilight Zone without all that love and intrigue being impastoed all over it. I didn't care for it. It seems too slow. But it has enough redeeming features that I can understand why some people might feel differently.