Butler's Cinema Scene

James Cromwell, Genevieve Bujold

“STILL MINE” My rating: C+ (Opening Aug. 9 at the Rio)

102 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

There is much to admire in “Still Mine”: Fine acting, some gorgeous cinematography, lovely New Brunswick landscapes.

None of which can dispel the sensation that the movie is bitter medicine that we should swallow because it will be good for us.

“When I was young I looked at old people and thought if you live long enough, you probably have time enough to figure out dying,” says 80-something Irene Morrison (Genevieve Bujold). “But I’m no closer now to the great mystery than when I was 10.”

Craig (James Cromwell), her husband of some 60 years, shrugs. A crusty old farmer, he hasn’t time for meditations on mortality. He’s got stuff to do.

“Still Mine,” written and directed by Michael McGowan, is a Canadian geezer drama (based on a real incident) that chronicles Craig’s long legal wrestling match with the local authorities over his plan to build a new house on his farmland.

With his beloved Irene slipping into dementia and their century-old farmhouse now unsuitable for folks their age (the place is impossible to heat and the only bathroom is on the second floor), Craig decides to build a nice cozy new one-story home. He’ll do it himself, the way his father taught him.

And he sees no reason why he should have to file building permits, or draw up architectural specs, or buy lumber that has been officially inspected and stamped (after all, he mills his own boards from his own trees and knows that the quality exceeds anything he’d find at a building supply store).

“When did we become a country of bureaucrats?” Craig fumes.

Part of the problem here is that Cromwell’s Craig is just ornery enough to be irritating.

It’s not like he lacks the money to do things by the book. As his seven grown children point out, he could sell some of that farmland he’s not using. Plus he is the possessor of a baseball signed by both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

But Craig is old-fashioned and self-sufficient to the nth degree. He won’t let his own children help him out until he’s pushed to the wall. He considers it an insult when a neighbor lady drops by with a casserole.

Meanwhile Irene is becoming more and more confused. And before you can say “rugged individualism,” Craig finds himself facing a possible jail sentence for his flagrant disregard of the rules.

The film’s mood is one of ever-tightening gloom…which makes the more-or-less happy ending seem dubious at best.

| Robert W. Butler