IRONWEED is a tough film to watch. It's set in the 1930s during the Great Depression where most of the people are homeless alcoholics that can't do anything for helping themselves, and during the course of the film you know a bit more about them and their lives.
Francis Phelan (Jack Nicholson) is a retired baseball player who deserted his family and that now lives among the bums and is haunted by lots of memories about all his errors... most of them caused because he's a drunk. He also costantly punishes himself for the deaths of some people he knew that died under various circumstances. During the 1938 Halloween Night he falls for Helen Archer (Meryl Streep), who lives on the streets and is homeless just like him. Francis becomes to do various jobs for support himself and Helen, and one day he goes to his former wife's (Carroll Baker) farmhouse and meeting also the kids she had from another man, but not even this convinces him to change life.
The acting by Nicholson and Streep was very good, and not surprisingly they received Academy Award nominations. The problem is that while it's very realistic, the subject itself and the story were a bit too depressing for my taste, and the fact that the movie lasts 143 minutes doesn't certainly help. If it was trimmed a bit and with some gleam of hope for the characters towards the end, it would have been better. As it is, it's watchable only for the performances of the leads but nothing more.
Francis Phelan (Jack Nicholson) is a retired baseball player who deserted his family and that now lives among the bums and is haunted by lots of memories about all his errors... most of them caused because he's a drunk. He also costantly punishes himself for the deaths of some people he knew that died under various circumstances. During the 1938 Halloween Night he falls for Helen Archer (Meryl Streep), who lives on the streets and is homeless just like him. Francis becomes to do various jobs for support himself and Helen, and one day he goes to his former wife's (Carroll Baker) farmhouse and meeting also the kids she had from another man, but not even this convinces him to change life.
The acting by Nicholson and Streep was very good, and not surprisingly they received Academy Award nominations. The problem is that while it's very realistic, the subject itself and the story were a bit too depressing for my taste, and the fact that the movie lasts 143 minutes doesn't certainly help. If it was trimmed a bit and with some gleam of hope for the characters towards the end, it would have been better. As it is, it's watchable only for the performances of the leads but nothing more.