Steel Magnolias (Julia Roberts, Sally Field)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s nearly ten years since we watched the film ‘Steel Magnolias’, and we had both forgotten what it was about. However my husband remembered the first scene as soon as we saw it: a man shooting birds out of a tree while preparations for a large wedding are going on around him. I had no memory of that, but as the film progressed I recalled the climax to the story, and also quickly grasped the general theme.

It’s good that I remembered roughly what was going on, as I had a very hard time, at first, tuning into the strong accents from the American South. Julia Roberts is the main character, Shelby. She’s quite young (this film was made in 1989) and it’s her wedding that’s going to happen the following day. We quickly learn that she and her fiancé Jackson (Dylan McDermott) have had an argument and she said she wouldn’t marry him. But they make up… although she clearly has some reservations.

However Shelby’s mother M’Lynn (Sally Field) is, in my view, the star of this film. We first see her fussing about everything being perfect for the wedding, and then being overprotective of her daughter. But then gradually we discover why. She has an extremely expressive face, and while I didn’t agree with everything she said or did, I could empathise with her strongly - all the more towards the end, during and after the climax of the film. I had forgotten when this occurred, and what situation prompted it, but knew how it ended.

M’Lynn and Shelby live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. And the theme of the story is the strong supportive nature of these people, particularly six very different women (with names so strange that I didn’t know what they were until I looked up the cast list on iMDB to check for the actors). Dolly Parton is superb as Truvy, the town’s hairdresser and beautician. She gossips, and flirts, but feels things deeply and is very caring.

We meet her near the start of the film interviewing a young and nervous girl called Annelle (Daryl Hannah) who desperately needs a job. Annelle is a bit of a strange character and had the accent that was most difficult to understand. I never entirely believed in her.

The other two main characters are two older women: Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) and Ouiser (Shirley Maclaine). These two have a love-hate relationship and provide a lot of the comedy in the film. Ouiser is grumpy most of the time (often with reason) and Clairee likes to stir…

The main story, which begins with the day before Shelby and Jackson’s wedding, takes place over the course of a little over a year. Emotions run high at times, but are interspersed with plenty of light relief and a great deal of warmth. Yet there’s a depth to this film and the incident towards the end, which shocked me the first time I saw it, seemed inevitable this time. And it’s very well done, as is the aftermath.

All in all, we thought it a well-made film, a better than average ‘rom com’. The rating is PG; there are some sex references but nothing explicit, and no violence - even the bird-shooting is done with blanks. I don’t recall much ‘strong’ language although there are plenty of mild expletives. However it’s unlikely to appeal to anyone below the age of about twelve.

According to one of the 'extras', this film was inspired by a true story.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews