THE GRASS HARP (1995) **1/2 Oh, Truman Capote's gentle southern stories. He's a mystical writer, not the way he writes, but the way he raises the things between. The stories are simple, their impact complex. He's all over that self-righteous rural conformity, but in a way that asks for nothing beyond compassion and acceptance. He might as well have asked a penguin for a hovercraft. Charles Matthau does a great job of presenting the simple tale, it's not the usual stuff that movies are made of but the material's more than worthy even within the medium's artificial dimensions. Walter Matthau is indescribably soulful as the contemplative and apostate judge. The narrative meanders like a river through a town that needs one. Unfortunately, only half an hour from the end or so, Charles starts rolling the dice like crazy, trying to evoke all of those things that Truman did. Truman could do that on paper, because he knew how. I doubt that anyone can do it on film. So the movie starts teetering a little bit, staggering beneath the broader hints of philosophy and billboard pathos, and the wheels come right on off as Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie come in relentlessly, like a wave set of scenes that aren't spaced enough. Sissy's dramatic, you have to give her that, but it's a sorry thing to see such a nice and simple film turned into such a devoutly, but not even actually, complex mess.
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