Life’s struggles play out in ‘A Painted House’

An eventful summer has a profound effect on the lives of a rural family in “A Painted House,” a well-made Hallmark Hall of Fame movie that airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on CBS.

Based on John Grisham’s novel about a family of cotton farmers in 1952 Arkansas -- loosely inspired by the author’s own childhood -- this child’s-eye look back at a time of back-breaking physical labor, hard economic times, prejudices, dark secrets and life changes has a notably different tone than the tense legal thrillers that have made Grisham a household name.

Not that this slice of Americana is a peaceful pastorale. There are two murders, a tornado, a flood and an at-home childbirth, all observed by a young boy named Luke (Logan Lerman), living with his grandparents (Scott Glenn and Melinda Dillon) and parents (Robert Sean Leonard and Arija Bareikis).

Clashes begin almost immediately between two volatile young men, facing off from disparate groups of migrant workers -- an Ozarks family and several Mexican men -- hired by Grandpa to pick the cotton. Bullying, bigotry, a pretty teenager and sheer meanness lead to a double tragedy; nature, meanwhile, delivers its own one-two punch.

The future of the cotton crop and the farm, the struggles of a hapless sharecropping family, and anxiety for a beloved uncle fighting in Korea add more layers of concern.

Yet threaded throughout is a boy’s view of a sunny, dusty, leaf-dappled summer, his first crush, and the outward symbol of secrets, change and hope: the white paint that slowly appears, as a gift, on the bare wooden exterior of Luke’s never-before-painted farmhouse.

Unfortunately, young Lerman (like some of the adult actors) is unable to express fully his character’s complex emotional journey. But director Alfonso Arau deftly compensates by finding resonances in Patrick Sheane Duncan’s screenplay through the visual and in other key performances, most notably in standout Glenn’s solidly rooted presence.