MOVIE REVIEW : Much Is Right With the Intimate ‘Morning Glory’

“Morning Glory” (selected theaters) is the kind of tender, intimate film that has a tough time finding an audience in today’s marketplace. That fact of life, coupled with an ending that’s far too pat for its own good, marks the movie as better suited to the tube than to the big screen.

Christopher Reeve and Deborah Raffin are a beleaguered backwoods couple. Reeve, an ex-con, meets her when he lands in a small Southern town and answers her ad for a husband. A recent widow with two children younger than 5 and another on the way, she needs help running her farm. In adapting LaVyrle Spencer’s 1989 novel, Raffin and co-writer Charles Jarrott wisely take their time letting the couple get to know each other. Reeve’s Will Parker is humble, polite and hungry; Raffin’s Elly Dinsmore is plain-spoken but often defensive and surprisingly reclusive. In time we learn that both are victims of grave injustices but that both possess the capacity to build a new life together.

The question is whether they’ll get the chance. There’s trouble right from the start, from J. T. Walsh’s close-minded sheriff who wants Will to move on and from the sheriff’s lover, a local waitress and town tart (Helen Shaver) who sets her cap for the handsome Will. Meanwhile, under Steven Stern’s direction, Reeve and Raffin involve us in their growing love for each other. Pivotal in their fate is the local librarian, a kindly woman beautifully played by Nina Foch; indeed, in its uniformly fine performances “Morning Glory” is an ensemble work.

Spanning a year beginning in early 1941, “Morning Glory” (rated PG-13 for a sex-related scene) has a nice sense of time and place. It diminishes its impact with a courtroom finale that relies too much on coincidence and contrivance, despite a standout turn by Lloyd Bochner as Will’s courtly attorney, a man skilled at reaching the local people without riling their prejudices and narrow-mindedness.

‘Morning Glory’ Christopher Reeve: Will Parker Elly Dinsmore: Deborah Raffin Lloyd Bochner: Bob Collins Nina Foch: Miss Beasley Helen Shaver: Lula Peaks J. T. Walsh: Sheriff Resse Goodloe

An Academy Entertainment release of a Dove Audio Inc. production. Director Steven Stern. Producer Michael Viner. Executive producer Jerry Leider. Screenplay by Charles Jarrott, Deborah Raffin; from the novel by LaVyrle Spencer. Cinematographer Laszlo George. Editor Richard Benwick. Costumes Maureen Hiscox. Music Jonathan Elias. Art director David Hiscox. Set decorator Barry Kemp. Sound Eric Batut. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (for a sex-related scene).