It's 1968 and the Whit clan are reuniting for the burial of Grandpa Sparta (Martin Sheen). But Sparta still has some secrets to reveal to his family and wisdom to impart to his grandson, in this whimsical comedy from the writer of The Bourne Identity.
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Reviews
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.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
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.
A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
I can't believe out of all the reviews I read through, and some were from Texans, that no one mentions; or wonders where the hell camels are in Texas other than a zoo. Who do u know with a barn that has a camel in it in Texas? I thought this was the funniest moment of this movie.And one review mentioned someone in the production crew had a fair understanding of TX folklore. Hahahaha.
This movie was interesting to say the least. Upon the death of the head of a family with a colorful history, the family gathers for a funeral and a lot of family secrets are revealed.Its not terribly serious in tone although it gets heavy in parts. The nervousness regarding the Black man in their midst was funny and rather true of the time and place. It certainly had humor which balanced the heavy subject of past wrongs and injustices and as the facade each person holds up starts to crack.Its hard to classify such a film that is trying to be a little of everything. It couldn't be but it was interesting watching them try.In the end the movie was engaging and I found myself genuinely interested and invested in most of the characters. So much so that I almost wish they could have had 'a what happened to these characters' segment at the end as I wanted to know how it all turned out for each person!! Worth a watch.
The performances are excellent. I did not even recognize Olivia D'Abo.It would be impossible to explain the plot of this film, and that is one of the reasons why I like it so much.The film touches on the importance of family ties, without being sappy. It touches on the the importance of forgiveness, without being preachy.It has plenty of "quirky" characters and situations, but not so much as to make them ridiculous. That is not to say that they are not absurd, and that is a good thing.It is not a ghost story as some synopses might cause one to believe. (Albeit, I might not have watched it if it were not for my being given that idea from a Comcast blurb.) I recommend A Texas Funeral to anybody who likes films that have plots that are difficult to detect in which direction they are going to go, but are a joy to follow.
An entertaining but overwrought exercise in American Baroque, the best way to describe this film is to say that it begins in David Lynch territory, rambles through Tennessee Williams country, and was last seen heading dangerously close to Waltons Mountain. Set in Texas in the late 1960s, the plot - dark secrets emerge when a family gathers for a family funeral - is hardly original, and while the Texan self-image comes in for some welcome satire, the cosy self-satisfied way in which the whole thing is tied up at the end would have a serious dramatist like Tennessee Williams spinning in his grave. Martin Sheen is much too decent to play the wicked old patriarch, and while any film that includes Joanne Whalley, ear-sucking, and camels can't be entirely bad, this is not a good advertisement for any of them.