Review of Heart Full of Rain

Carroll Baker,thumb- sucking nymphet sensation of "Baby Doll" has metamorphosed 40 odd years later into a formidable and still beautiful earth - mother,fiercely proud of her fractured family;proud stubborn husband,errant,absent older son,and autistic,loving younger son.She is descended from good farming stock who have been living on the same spread for 150 years.Now times are hard and she has been forced to sell part of her land to a store company who are now wanting to build a shopping mall on the site.Her husband blames the older son for their plight and when the prodigal returns there is not universal rejoicing. Add to this a ceaseless downpour,the threat of a breaking levee and the fact that mother has not told her sons that she has brain cancer and you have the recipe for the sort of movie that I would normally walk a mile to avoid,tear - jerking by the numbers.But......Miss Baker and Mr Richard Crenna as her husband are so darned good that the plot clichés flow round them,leaving them magnificently unconcerned as they proceed to show us that age and experience have it over youth and energy every time. As the movie follows its oh- so- predictable path and everything falls into place,be grateful for the two veterans whose performances make the whole thing endurable,nay,enjoyable.