If Andrew Wyeth worked in film instead of oil, he would have created "Carried
Away". It has that mid-western, stark look to it. And that is the landscape
of Joseph and Rosealee's lives. Dennis Hopper, as Joseph, teaches, farms,
takes care of his mother and carries on a boring relationship with Amy Irving
as Rosealee. Chaos arrives in the form of Catherine, a seventeen year old
Lolita portrayed by Amy Locane. She breaks Joseph out of his emotional prison,
and turns the whole town upside down with their affair.
Nothing about "Carried Away" is half way. The supporting cast
includes such luminaries as Hal Holbrook, Gary Busey and Julie Harris. The
nudity is not just full frontal, but all the way around and back. In an
attempt to give his wife, Amy Irving, a harder, older look, director Bruno
Barreto shoots her with no make up and in harsh light.
I had been fearful of this adaptation of Jim Harrison's novel, "Farmer"
after the recent adaptation of his "Legends of the Fall", but
Barreto keeps this a character driven piece, not a star vehicle. And while
the performances are superb, it is Joseph and Rosealee's visual images that
remain.
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