The Straight Story

I’ve seen loads of road movies over the years, but never one that involved an elderly gent travelling from Iowa to the adjacent Wisconsin driving his lawnmower! “Alvin” (Richard Farnsworth) is a curmudgeonly seventy-something whose health and mobility are failing and who lives with his daughter “Rose” (Sissy Spacek) - a lady without her own problems to seek, too! When he learns that his estranged brother “Lyle” has had a stroke, he determines to visit him after a ten year hiatus. The bus, the train, a plane? Nope. He hitches a trailer to his grass cutter and off he goes. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t get very far before it blows a gasket. Back to square one, he still chooses to shun more traditional (and comfortable) modes of transport and spends what’s left of his savings on a slightly more upmarket tractor - think a wheeled version of a pygmy hippo. As he travels, he encounters a selection of people with whom he engages, eats, shares stories, venison, and even essential repairs and this journey of reflection helps him to put into better perspective just what led to their sibling separation; what caused his daughter’s “illness” and what the future could hold for him if only he gave it a chance. It’s also quite a pleasing vindication of the human spirit as those he meets up with are invariably helpful, interested and sympathetic - even when he isn’t always the easiest to get on with. Farnsworth is entirely natural here (he reminded me a lot of Will Geer) as his rut-like existence becomes laid bare to his own eyes. There’s nothing really contentious here either, it’s just a quirky first-gear cruise down a road of memories, friendship and opportunity and it’s almost entirely devoid of any cloying sentiment, too.