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THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF Send This Review to a Friend
This film directed by Udayan Prasad (“My Son the Fanatic”) starts in an unpretentious way and bit by bit builds into a story that is involving and leads to an emotional impact that comes from having gotten to know the key characters with reason to care about them. We get more and more background information filled in along the way. There are four fine performances that illuminate this odd, ultimately intriguing tale.
William Hurt plays Brett, a drifter who, we learn, has served a prison term for manslaughter. We meet Brett as he is released, and a subtle scene in which he observes another released con being met and greeted underscores for Brett and for us that he has no one. Hurt is excellent at projecting an enigmatic image and conveying the demeanor of a man who is hurting and needs to make a connection with life.
Through odd circumstances he starts on a journey to New Orleans with Kristen Stewart as the young, also lonely Martine and Eddie Redmayne as the very awkward young Gordy, who is sweet on Martine but doesn’t know how to act with her. She has no patience with him, and yet----.
The friendship between Brett, Martine and Gordy grows along the way, and Gordy becomes more sympathetic as we learn more about him. Brett needs to get away on his own. We are clued in to the love affair he has had with Maria Bello as May, a working class woman who is fiercely independent as a result of what life has done to her. She was willing to stick by him when he was imprisoned, yet he turned his back on her. Can they get together again? Will Brett be able to summon the courage to even try? Bello’s performance, in keeping with her exceptional talent, brings both feistiness and warmth to the character of May.
“The Yellow Handkerchief” is basically a film about second chances in life, the ability to break through barriers with communication and also an interesting parallel between older people trying to relate and younger people with similar problems in their own sphere. I see that this is an Artthur Cohn production. It figures. The Swiss-based producer makes a point of doing meaningful stories and has among his credits the gems “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis,” “A Brief Vacation,” “Central Station” and “Black and White in Color.” A Samuel Goldwyn Films release.
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