Peter Fonda as Ulee did his best to recreate his dad Henry in this film, and was nearly as effective as Henry would have been in the same role. Peter does not have Henry's fiery blue eyes that displayed an inner fierceness that belied his outward calm so Peter, with his mother's looks and his very laid back personality, has to work harder(without appearing to do so) to have a similar Fonda impact but he did it so well here and better than I thought he could. This role was a perfect fit for him and he was terrific in it, and he is a credit to the great Fonda name as a result. Ulee's Gold might have been a Oscar instead of the honey he made as a bee-keeper(Peter was nominated but did not win).
As a reclusive and introverted Viet Nam vet with a painful war disability, an extreme family dysfunction, and a declining but backbreaking bee-keeping business that's rapidly facing extinction, Ulee has a lot of hard work and stress interfering with his taxing efforts to just get by from day to day. When thrown into a deadly family crisis caused by his criminal and convict son, he reluctantly gets deeply involved in trying to solve it and almost gets killed for it.
Many viewers may think this film was paced too slow, but most filmmakers trying to portray a rural story set in the South get the pacing all wrong, as city boy filmmakers never understand why Southern folks move slowly and seem to think slowly, thereby appearing stupid and/or lazy, so they try to speed up the story and ruin it by doing so. I was a country boy early on and understand that carefully-paced, oven hot-country behavior very well and was pleased that Ulee's Gold was paced just right, which to me was the critical factor in making this film believable, along with the spot-on acting of the lead characters.
Pat Richardson of Home Improvement was terrific as the helpful tenant/eventual love interest, as her character's basic human goodness, calmness, and sweet motherly nature showed again an example of perfect casting, as that is Pat.
See this good story with lots of tension and realistic Southern pacing, and great acting in the leads. Plus, very interesting visuals of bee-keeping details made this one of my favorite films set in the South.
For other great films set in the South, see The Trip To Bountiful, Places in the Heart, and Sling Blade.
As a reclusive and introverted Viet Nam vet with a painful war disability, an extreme family dysfunction, and a declining but backbreaking bee-keeping business that's rapidly facing extinction, Ulee has a lot of hard work and stress interfering with his taxing efforts to just get by from day to day. When thrown into a deadly family crisis caused by his criminal and convict son, he reluctantly gets deeply involved in trying to solve it and almost gets killed for it.
Many viewers may think this film was paced too slow, but most filmmakers trying to portray a rural story set in the South get the pacing all wrong, as city boy filmmakers never understand why Southern folks move slowly and seem to think slowly, thereby appearing stupid and/or lazy, so they try to speed up the story and ruin it by doing so. I was a country boy early on and understand that carefully-paced, oven hot-country behavior very well and was pleased that Ulee's Gold was paced just right, which to me was the critical factor in making this film believable, along with the spot-on acting of the lead characters.
Pat Richardson of Home Improvement was terrific as the helpful tenant/eventual love interest, as her character's basic human goodness, calmness, and sweet motherly nature showed again an example of perfect casting, as that is Pat.
See this good story with lots of tension and realistic Southern pacing, and great acting in the leads. Plus, very interesting visuals of bee-keeping details made this one of my favorite films set in the South.
For other great films set in the South, see The Trip To Bountiful, Places in the Heart, and Sling Blade.