Ulee's Gold is a superb film that features the most important ingredients that summer blockbusters never consider. Ulee's Gold is all about family relationships and the importance of seeing something through to the end. The main feature of the film, of course, is that there is a story. Forget special effects: nothing blows up here, no noses are broken and there's not eve a decent car chase.
Instead, the whole film pads along almost in slow motion. The story takes place during a week in the file of a North Florida beekeeper. Its his busiest time, but its also a very private time between Ulee and his bees. Together they will produce the best of all honey - tupelo. During this period, however, Ulee's firmly disciplined existence is thrown into turmoil by a phone call from his son, Jimmy. A phone call which sparks the events of the film.
But don't let the slowness of the pace fool you. There is more tension and fear packed into Ulee's Gold than any summer blockbuster. In ConAir you know that every edifice will be blown up and every airplane destroyed, so there are few surprises. In Ulee's Gold, on the other hand, Victor Nunez keeps his audiences on the edge of their seats, waiting for the moment Peter Fonda will suddenly shake off his fatigue to kick box the bad guys into oblivion. But the tension is never released.
The film is set in North Florida and the tension of the movie fills the air like the humidity. Peter Fonda's performance cuts through the film like the blades of the ubiquitous ceiling fans in Floridian homes.
Fonda is wonderful in the title role of Ulee. At 58, Fonda is growing more like his famous father. Indeed, his performance in Ulee's Gold is a cross between Easy Rider and On Golden Pond.
Fonda is supported admirably by Patricia Richardson from TV's Home Improvement and especially by Christine Dunford whose portrayal of a drug addict is painfully honest.
In short, I cannot praise Ulee's Gold enough. E experienced a gamut of emotions during the film and I was riveted to the slowly evolving story throughout. The film unfolds with all the beauty of a French classic and is destined to send audiences to video stores in search of Nunez's earlier works, like Gal Young ŒUn, A Flash of Green or Ruby in Paradise.
Ulee's Gold is superb and stands alone, but it has a certain special charm because Nunez is from Tallahassee. It was particularly exciting to drive by his house on the way home from the movie. I told him how much I loved the film--he wasn't home, but I told him anyway.