“ANOTHER HARVEST MOON” My rating: C (Opening June 24 at the Glenwood Arts)
88 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
With “Another Harvest Moon” we get about 300 years of acting experience up there on the movie screen.
Too bad that talent is put it to such unremarkable use.
Greg Swartz’s film is set in a retirement community where Frank (Ernest Borgnine, still vital at 94) finds himself after suffering a stroke that has left one arm useless.
He’s surrounded by people his own age and strikes up friendships with the bickering Ella and Alice (Anne Meara, Doris Roberts) and the Alzheimer’s-addled June (Piper Laurie).
He finds a confidant in a young orderly (Sunkrish Bala) who is willing to indulge some of Frank’s unorthodox requests.
But Frank remains an unhappy camper. And the longer he spends in this waiting room for the hereafter, the more he wants to speed up the process. So with the help of his grandson (Cameron Monaghan) he obtains his World War II pistol and hides it in his room. That way, when he’s ready to check out he’ll have the means at hand.
“Another Harvest Moon” has a deep cast (Cybill Shepherd and Richard Schiff play Joe’s grown children) and offers a universal situation (someday most of us are going to be there).
Borgnine provides a compelling center for the project. But in the hands of Swartz and screenwriter Jeremy T. Black the film never rises above the level of a so-so Hallmark Hall of Fame effort.
The mood veers uncomfortably between jollity (aren’t old folks amusing?) and bereavement without ever finding a satisfying middle ground.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
Leave a comment