TV REVIEW : ‘Wind’ Blows Away Serious Approach to Physical Abuse

The line between battered women and battered viewers gets straddled quite a bit with the unsavory Dolly Parton vehicle “Wild Texas Wind” (an NBC movie airing at 9 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39), in which the serious issue of physical abuse really plays second fiddle to lots of good ol’ country music and a teaser of a murder mystery.

It’s like a lowbrow “Burning Bed” for bumpkins, complete with a feel-good ending that has a no-longer-bruised Dolly yelping yoo-hoo! right before the closing credits, in place of the traditional 800 number.

It’s too bad the movie ends up such a bust, because the intriguing middle third seems to have more going for it, perhaps the remnants of an earlier, better script. John Carlen’s teleplay (from a story by Parton and Mark Kiracofe) starts off as a typical romance in which Parton, as an unknown country crooner still duking it out on the road, meets up and moves in with Gary Busey, doing a fine turn as a sweet-talking, well-meaning manager and promoter.

Knowing ahead of time that good-natured Busey will eventually start using his fists on America’s sweetheart only makes his eager, nervous performance all the scarier. He’s not the stock wife-beater of current cinematic villainy, but an apparently decent, damaged guy devoid of self-control. The movie even gets into the trendy-but-true dysfunctional psychology that created him, with a bitterly alcoholic dad standing in for all the sins of the fathers.

Toward the end, though, “West Texas Wind” suddenly turns into a bad episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” with Parton and her trusty band leader (Ray Benson, of the group Asleep at the Wheel) both suspected of homicide. You can see the twist ending coming from even further away than you can spot Dolly’s head-turning outfits.

Speaking of which, costume designer Tony Chase has done quite a job of coming up with a succession of form-fitting wraps for what many warm-blooded men would agree is some spectacular architecture. But considering that Parton is supposed to be playing an ordinary woman and not the voluptuous fantasy figure Dolly Parton, it’s awfully distracting.

Parton looks a little too good in almost every scene, in fact, even visiting her comatose mother in the nursing home adorned with a gorgeous makeup job that virtually shouts I’m on national TV . Even later, with bruised cheeks and bloodied lips, she’s photographed flatteringly, not taking many cues from Farrah Fawcett.

Though the abuse sequences are well-done and not overly exploitive, some of the most riveting scenes are the cruel confrontations between Busey and his drunkard father, Dennis Letts (who eventually overplays his hand). But after building a certain sympathy for Busey’s pathology, director Joan Tewkesbury and her cast conveniently forget he ever existed by the end, all the sooner to get Parton (who duets with cameo guest star Willie Nelson) cheerfully, life-affirmingly “on the road again.”