Rambling Rose (1991)

I gave this film a 9 out of 10, because it was exactly what I expected it to be.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

If Buddy was 13 in the 30's (when the majority of the story took place), he would have been in his 50's in the 70's (when the story was supposed to end). The grown up Buddy who appears at the end of the movie was MAYBE in his early to mid 30's. In reality, he'd have actually been about 20 years older. Other than that, cute movie coming from a Southerner. Usually, Im picky about movies taking place in the South. For example, I hated Julia Roberts fake accent in Steel Magnolias. It irritated me because she IS from the South, and STILL found it necessary to over exaggerate a Southern Accent. Overall, cute movie. Didn't even know it existed until I walked in on my mother watching it. Laura and Diane (real life mother & daughter) are cute in it together.

I haven't seen this film in quite a while but I have pretty good memories about it. It's an intriguing film, something different and appealing even though some of the subject matter is "inappropriate."I saw the last word because it involves a 13-year-old boy whose hormones are raging and his brief relationship with a grown woman. There is one sex scene that may make people squirm a bit, so be forewarned. Other than that, I don't remember anything else objectionable.I like the photography and always enjoy seeing the old days - here it's the 1920s and 1930s - portrayed on today's films with the great cameramen and directors of today. Also, the South has some beautiful scenery that is eloquently on display here.The story is well-acted with real-life mother-daughter Diane Ladd and Laura Dern, along with Robert Duvall and Lukas Haas. The latter plays the young man and was already somewhat of a star after playing the young Amish boy in the 1985 film "Witness." Duvall is one of the finest actors of his generation so you always get a good performance out of him.This is a pretty low-key story but never puts you to sleep. Modern day feminists might like this film was Ladd plays that role to the hilt. Dern also delivered, making a very believable "Rose."

I'm a sucker for nostalgic memoirs of childhood, but this one has little to recommend it. Lukas Haas should win a special award for "work ethic": he's hardly skipped a year for movies appearing since he was 7, and IMDb lists him with SIX in various stages of pre-production at this writing. In the present one, he's 15 playing Buddy, a Depression-era 13-y/o whose family takes in Rose, a vivacious and sexually rather uninhibited young woman, especially for that time. She "puts the move" on the father while Buddy and his sister watch, but dad is stalwart and declines. Buddy, who has no such moral qualms, does wind up with her in his bed one time, and manages to pet her to orgasm, but she returns no favors to him, though she apparently doesn't mind "doing it" with most any young man who comes along. The summer passes, or the year, or whatever it was, and everybody moves on with their lives. So what?

This movie gives a eyeopening glimpse of the 1930's and a hidden agenda of a very moralistic time. It is a charming story of the maid's attempt to walk the line between her own natural inclinations and the societies expectations for her. Laura Dern offers a very realistic and convincing performance that marks her as a great character actress. The interaction with her own mother, in the supporting cast, shows a natural adaptation to a role that is rare in such a young actress. Duvall is wonderful in a role that demands a vast understanding of human emotion and character study of his part. The set and old automobiles lend a real authenticity to this period in history. It takes you back to a simpler time, but underscores all of the attitudes of the time. This is a movie to be enjoyed again and again at each opportunity. I highly recommend it.