Shy People (1987) User Reviews

Atmosphere you can cut with a knife

[GregCnAZ-1 · 8/10 · 11 September 2005]

I agree with the previous poster that Shy People has definitely fallen through the cracks. It is haunting, and sometimes even a bit hard to watch. However the performances by Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey and the supporting cast are awesome. Ever been to the bayou? I spent two years in Lousiana and explored the landscape every chance I got. I have to say that this film probably captures that life better than any I've ever seen. The clash between that isolated world, seemingly cut off from the rest of society, and that of Jill Clayburgh's classy New York existence is fascinating. On the surface, these two families have absolutely nothing in common, and yet, they somehow have a profound affect on one another. Since this film isn't on DVD, it can be hard to find. However if you do, don't miss it. It's one that tends to stay with you for a while afterward which seems to rarely happen these days.

all relatives are something

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 12 June 2007]

Barbara Hershey won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in Andrei Konchalovsky's "Shy People". The movie portrays a magazine writer (Jill Clayburgh) and her daughter (Martha Plimpton) taking a trip to the Louisiana boondocks to meet a distant relative (Hershey). As the movie progresses, we learn not only about the relative's various kinds of superstitions, but also about the secrets that the great uncle held, and how they relate to some current rifts in the family.

Probably the movie's best aspect is how it dignifies country people. While making it clear that these folks have some backwards notions about things - namely that the deceased man is still watching - Konchalovsky never makes them look stupid. Also, we get to see rural Louisiana (although it may have changed in the past twenty years, especially after Hurricane Katrina).

If anything mildly disappointed me about the movie, it's that I didn't get to hear more about Cajun culture. But then again, it's probably best that the movie didn't lose its main focus. I would suspect that the one boy was right when he accused the oil companies.

All in all, worth seeing.

Well acted tale about family and different worlds.

[michellepugh-964-461455 · 8/10 · 16 January 2020]

Barbara Hershey was incredible as usual. This film will stay with you well after its over.

Strange, haunting, very absorbing

[ukcritic · 17 August 2002]

Barbara Hershey gives a great performance as the deeply repressed backwoods woman -- it could have been caricature work, but it's passionate, dedicated and determined yet restrained. Her character is so dedicated to code and rigid beliefs that after a while we surprise ourselves by starting to wonder if there's some truth, or sense, or admirable strength, to her punishing way of living.

The city woman, played by Jill Clayburgh, is our way into the story, and yet she is depicted as somewhat silly and sheltered; her modern, idealistic comments and questions get across thoughts we agree with, and yet they aren't intended as powerful speeches, so our balance of skepticism and interest in Hershey is retained.

"Shy People" is full of powerful melodrama, strange and specific characters, striking settings, extreme dramatic implications and turning points. The material penetrates the mind and refuses to settle down in the form of cosy conclusions. An oddly powerful movie.

Loud and proud

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 1 April 2022]

A nominee for the 1987 Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm and the movie that won Barbara Hershey best actress at that year's festival, Shy People features the eleventh official soundtrack by the band Tangerine Dream. Want to know more about them? Check out a past article we featured on the site, Exploring: 10 Tangerine Dream Film Soundtracks.

Diana Sullivan (Jill Clayburgh) may be a successful New York journalist, but she has no idea just how bad her daughter Grace (Martha Plimpton) has spiraled out of control or how bad her cocaine habit is. Meanwhile, a new assignment takes her back home and into Louisiana, where they come into the orbit of Diana's distant cousin, Ruth (Hershey) and her brood of boys who have been taught that everything that comes from the cities is wrong.

Director Andrei Konchalovsky also made Duet for One, Maria's Lovers and Runaway Train for Cannon. Somehow, he soon followed this with Tango & Cash which still makes me think over his choices, as that film is so alien from the rest of what I know of his work.

Roger Ebert said that Shy People is "one of the great visionary films of recent years, a film that shakes off the petty distractions of safe Hollywood entertainments and develops a large vision."

After all the success at Cannes and such a strong review, why is Shy People nearly forgotten? Every explained it as "a great film that slipped through the cracks of an idiotic distribution deal," as "when a major distributor made a substantial offer for it, it developed that a Cannon executive already had booked it into 300 Southwestern theaters in a quick-cash deal. The major distributor pulled out, the movie never received a proper launching..," and that was, sadly, that.

A haunting tale of shallow city life vs. that of relative isolation

[Urshnabi · 10/10 · 1 April 1999]

This film seems at first pretentious and then very thoughtful.

It begins as a shallow magazine photographer and her daughter travel deep into the Bayou to research their family history. As they meet and establish relationships with their cousins, the story evolves into a truly haunting display of modern life vs. isolation, and the ways in which people relate to each other. Barbara Hershey is especially excellent as a tough but deeply loving widow.

Superb drama and astute analogy of the Soviet Union

[Rod Evan · 10/10 · 21 April 2001]

Beautiful photography of the Louisiana bayou and excellent performances by Barbara Hershey and the rest of the cast make for a gripping drama. Criticised by some for being melodramatic, this film is more than a comparison of the city and country life. It is also surely an analogy by director Konchalovsky for the Soviet Union progressing through harsh but effective tyranny to a more uncertain and questionable "freedom".

Ugh.....Utter Nonsense

[mcjensen-05924 · 2/10 · 8 September 2023]

First of all, the shots of the bayou are lovely. It made me want to go visit, to be honest. One star for that and the other for Plimpton, who is cute and alluring beyond description. The rest? Blech! Jull Clayburgh completely destroys any chance this movie might have had with her unconvincing, flat line annoying presence. Every scene she in she overacts and wrecks any momentum. Herschey is merely good, but it's easy to see that the acting talent in the Swayze went to Don and not Patrick. This movie could have been something to remember but it instead turns into 80's formulatic drivel. Ridiculous.

An unacknowledged masterpiece

[finlayson-m · 10/10 · 1 April 2023]

This movie is for all the people who were enthralled by Runaway Train and wondered what happened to its director. Well, he eventually made Tango and Cash; which has its time and place, but he also made this bonafide work of greatness. It isn't a kinetically fierce work of cinema like Runaway Train, but there is so much else here for the viewer to mull over. A character driven story where none of the characters are wholly endearing, but all of them are vulnerable and forgiveable. While the movie grips you with its stark examination of colliding cultures, it never for a moment lets you forget that everyone involved is a real person.

Lacks purpose.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 25 December 2000]

Well-photographed but purposeless film moves at a snail's pace and only occasionally manages to be compelling. Barbara Hershey convincingly changes her image but Jill Clayburgh is rather flat. The fresh-faced, talented Martha Plimpton, as Clayburgh's restless daughter, is by far the best thing in this film. (**)

Mystical beauty of life

[Ascendingsun · 7 December 2019]

The film evoking Bunuel's Tristana for its unconditional love of characters, embracing all their qualities as they are without judgment. It's a film about mystery of love, the heart, mind and soul colluding with the rationalization of the mind, or more precisely the mystery of the spirit vs the rationalization of an ego, represented by two different worlds and people coming together, learning from one another and becoming all the more whole at the end. A mystical lyrical film that is more about the meaningful poetry of images rather than the story, Andrei Konchalovsky's cinema always seemed to me reminiscent particularly of Dostojevsky's work of literature, focusing on the human soul, works like The Idiot can come to mind often, such an exploration in this film is beautiful and marvelous, unique in a way that has no comparison in the history of cinema. As a film it does remind me of his other memorable works (House Of Fools, Nest For The Gentry or The Postman's White Nights). Konchalovsky has once said that "Cinema is ruthless because it's too specific, the task of the director in the cinema is to leave space for imagination."

For me Shy People is perfect example how to do a film that has no clear message, it leaves it up to an audience to find them for themselves, to find connections, to see what their heart, mind and soul guide them to see and feel.

Hillbillies Vs. The City Folk

[chinaskee · 4/10 · 17 August 2001]

This is standard hokum that pits a couple of city folk vs. some backwoods bayou dwellers.This film reminded me alot of "American Gothic",except this isn't supposed to be a horror film.Mare Winningham and Pruitt Taylor Vince have alot of fun portraying a couple of the hillbillies,and are the best part of the film.Jill Clayburgh turns in another in a string of lousy performances.Every performance she gives just seems to have a "TV movie" aura to it.There's also some great cinematography,which makes the film more interesting to watch than it deserves.

"You city people, you're all warm like...dishwater."

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 7 September 2010]

Overwrought exercise in culture-clash, though worth-seeing for Chris Menges' distinguished, sometimes showoff-y cinematography and for Barbara Hershey's gritty portrayal of a backwoods matriarch living with her clan in the bayous of Louisiana. New York journalist Jill Clayburgh, researching her family origins, takes hell-raising daughter Martha Plimpton with her down South, meeting cousins they never knew about--and a way of life far removed from their own. Co-written by Gérard Brach, Marjorie David, and director Andrei Konchalovsky, the film has bravura individual moments, bits and pieces which fail to parlay into a strong, cohesive whole. Nevertheless, an interesting shot at something different, although the usually-strong Clayburgh never gets her chance at a good scene. ** from ****

Great Flick

[duckblue99 · 31 July 2011]

This is one of my favorite movies. Barbara Hershey is awesome. The portrayal of the bayou is very realistic, claustrophobic, eerie, and downright real. It's kind of a feminine Deliverance. I'm glad I saw this when it came out as it is hard to find now--not on DVD. Definitely worth it. Should have been up for a few Oscars. Why can't it be out on DVD? This is an important film also in that it shows there is more drama to the swamp as landscape that one would think with all the swamp creature movies out there. Yes, there really are creatures in the swamp, but there are also people, just like us. The brothers are also great and the cinematography is stupendous.

They're not really shy. Just private.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 23 April 2021]

What is essentially an exposé of what people in the Louisiana bayou are like, just so city slickers like New York City resident Jill Clayburgh will begin to see them as something other than hicks or backwards, comes out to be a thought-provoking character driven drama worth seeing once. She's exhausted by her metropolitan life as a columnist from Cosmopolitan magazine, tired of the fights with daughter Martha Plimpton, a rebel with no cause, so she does a reverse "Beverly Hillbillies" and drags her down to the deep south so she can locate relatives that she has never met. This leads her to cousin Barbara Hershey who thinks she is from the IRS, and refuses to give up her house. But once Clayburgh proves her claim, Hershey welcomes her and Plimpton to stay, and as they get to know each other, the secrets begin to unfold which creates a bit of mystery.

The house reminds me of many of the old style southern mansions you see falling apart in other movies, particularly Bette Davis's home in "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte". I've also seen several horror films that have an atmosphere like this, such as the camp classic "Frogs". But it's not only the difference in these people's lifestyles that guide the drama, and it is here where Clayburgh basically becomes just an observer, and the seemingly odd lives that Hershey and her wacky family live in starts to make more sense as the two city women become fascinated by the goings-on that they see traveling up and down the muck filled river where there's more issues than just snakes that get into the motorboat.

Not as much a film than a docudrama, the camera becomes the star, and the plot takes a background to everything going on in this mysterious world right in our own country and backyard. Plimpton's relationship with her new found cousins is also an important plot point, and after a while, you're prepared for anything because in this world far away from society, anything is possible, even homemade stitches being put in one of Hershey's children's head. I don't think that this is a film that everyone will enjoy, but it is fascinating to watch for a world most people will never get to visit. The ending goes into some devastating, dark places based on the denial of Hershey's character and the three male cousins (one locked up for alleged psychotic behavior, obviously not the only one), and the tragic consequences that come out of these long hidden secrets and sudden sickening twists involving Plimpton.

Plimpton gets to really blossom in this film, going from cynical New Yorker to sudden human being, losing her own selfishness as she puts man-made contraptions away and sees the world from a bigger view. I was surprised that Hershey, who gets a lot of acclaim for this, really doesn't have excessive screen time, but she's really brave in going without makeup for a change, far earthier then she would be as the glamorous tragic heroine the year later in "Beaches". This won't be considered one of the highlights of Clayburgh's career, but I found that she did what she was directed to do, and does become more content and less neurotic as the film goes on. "Shy People" may not be the outgoing film that calls people to watch it, but if you give it a chance, you'll find the artistic success that is strived for even if it is not a triumph.

A mixed bag

[Zen-2-Zen · 15 May 2012]

It's hard to even put one's finger on what Konchalovskiy actually thought he was doing because as a whole the film doesn't hold together and looks rather fragmented. Maybe he wanted to do a horror flick or he didn't even have a coherent concept but just went shooting and hoping that something will come out of it?

The script has distinctive feeling of an old school Russian theatrical play - too much pathos and sharp separations between formal acts. That damages the flow and makes it look too verbal and melodramatic (which does work for live theater), as if it was used because they (3 writers) didn't have enough ideas for a smooth flow. Also a retard son was a cliché without any purpose or history.

The cast was very uneven in quality and makes me think that maybe Konchalovskiy run out of ideas on what do do with actors. Barbara Hershey has done a great job but the character is still monotone and that's a direction flaw (she has done enough very different characters to be able to portray a character transition). Martha Plimpton did well as Grace but it looks like she was left to her own devices and she needed directional help to go from "well" to "great". Jill Clayburgh was abysmal, ruined half of the flick and made me think how would Meryl Strip or Glenn Close make that role fly sky high.

Cinematography was way to much of a Chris Menges showing off and not thinking about the whole. In some scenes it looks so artificial that it make you snap out of the flow. Also it's way too much of a flat gray and lacking a range which is a trap that indulgent cinematographers sometimes fall into. Whatever he saw as gradations of gray on the set is lost even on celluloid and turns into a smudge in digital.

Portraying eerie requires enough contrast for the audience at large to see visual structure instead of a flat surface. Some thinking and effort to transition from say lush green to foggy to rainy to "vapor above a water" and some testing to check what is realistically discernible on screen with the tech at hand.

Not really satisfying in any respect at all

[philosopherjack · 22 March 2024]

Andrei Konchalovsky's Shy People is a lumpy concoction, not really satisfying in any respect at all, but generally strange or eventful enough to maintain one's interest. Diana (a not very effective Jill Clayburgh), a New York-based writer for Cosmopolitan, travels to the Louisiana bayous to seek out some distant relatives, thinking she can get an article of it, with her teenage daughter Grace (Martha Plimpton) tagging along. The family lives up-river, way away from it all (at times evoking a scuzzier version of the French plantation in the extended version of Apocalypse Now) under the stiflingly tight control of matriarch Ruth (Barbara Hershey), who for example keeps one of her kids locked up like an animal; Diana's arrival coincides with an increase in tensions between the family and local poachers, with events at times approaching Deliverance-level feral, at others edge-of-horror grotesquerie. For all that, it often seems that the movie's main point is simply to wallow in the contrast between the two women, big hair and clunky jewelry versus never-seen-a-comb and rotting teeth, but the closing stretch seems to be hinting at a form of spiritual exchange or transmigration, with Diana drawing her errant child closer even as Ruth loosens her grasp over her brood; adding to the sense of the quasi-supernatural, Ruth's husband, who she treats as merely missing even while all the evidence suggests he's long-dead, makes an at least symbolic return, in mysteriously transplanted form. But the co-crediting of the screenplay to Roman Polanski's frequent collaborator Gerard Brach perhaps leads one to detect something more darkly twisted than Konchalovsky actually delivers, and the closing citation of Revelations (because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth) is more likely to prompt eye-rolling than sage nodding. The film's more striking moments include the sight of a group of locals sitting at the dock gathered around a battery-operated TV, mesmerized by, of all people, Liberace.