The Water Is Wide
Y
Jan 27, 2006
9-11 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 29
CBS
A couple of Pat Conroy novels, "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides," became memorable theatrical films brimming with drama and fascinating personal conflict. Another of his works, "The Water Is Wide," became a less memorable 1974 film, "Conrack," starring Jon Voight and Hume Cronyn. Hallmark Hall of Fame is taking another stab at the novel but with mixed success. While not without charm and elegant cinematography, this CBS remake rushes too quickly to a mushy conclusion and, in the end, offers little justification for taking a second pass at the story.
The novel, adapted by Jonathan Estrin, was inspired by Conroy's experience in the late 1960s as a teacher of black children in a tiny public school on an island off the South Carolina coast. Mostly neglected by the white mainland school board, the kids were being taught by Mrs. Brown (Alfre Woodard), a stern disciplinarian. Although black herself, Mrs. Brown believed all her charges were lazy, shiftless and slow.
Into this milieu of isolation and low expectations comes young Conroy, played by newcomer Jeff Hephner. Fresh out of college and engaged to a widow with a young daughter, he defies the conventional wisdom and disdains corporal punishment. The children in this Southern version of "To Sir, With Love" respond immediately, achieving academically at a rate that puts them on a direct course toward careers in rocket science or brain surgery.
Director John Kent Harrison is careful not to overreach as he goes for the emotional truth of each scene, but the story itself is squishy-soft and lacks the nuance needed to make credible the transformation of the kids, the parents and, especially, Mrs. Brown. As for Conroy, he is pretty much the same when the movie ends as he was when it started: a free spirit with an open mind and a suspicion of authority. A couple of flashbacks to the ranting of Conroy's martinet of a father offer more distraction than insight. In the end, Conroy's response to the retribution of his superiors is no different than what it might have been had he not been subject to Dad's verbal abuse.
The young actors chosen to play the students are uniformly well-cast, but a few other problems arise. Scenes with Conroy's fiancee (Julianne Nicholson) do almost nothing to advance the story. At the same time, though Hephner has the requisite likability for the role, Harrison has a hard time getting the actor to hold his own in scenes in which he confronts Woodard's Mrs. Brown and the autocratic school superintendent, superbly played by Frank Langella.
And what are we to make of the blatant racism that underlies the entire story? It is, throughout the entire movie, the elephant in the room about which no one even whispers.
THE WATER IS WIDE
CBS
Hallmark Hall of Fame Prods. in association with Fox Television Studios
Credits:
Executive producers: Richard Welsh, Brent Shields
Director: John Kent Harrison
Teleplay by: Jonathan Estrin
Based on the novel by: Pat Conroy
Director of photography: Kees Van Oostrum
Production designer: William Cruse
Editor: Michael Ornstein
Music: Jeff Beal
Set decorator: Marthe Pineau
Casting by: Lynn R. Kressel
Cast:
Pat Conroy: Jeff Hephner
Mrs. Brown: Alfre Woodard
Piedmont: Frank Langella
Barbara: Julianne Nicholson
Edna: LaTanya Richardson
Bennington: James Murtaugh
Ethel: Ivana Grace
Charles: Marcus Carl Franklin
Saul: Cole Hawkins
Cindy Lou: Halle Brown
Sunday, Jan. 29
CBS
A couple of Pat Conroy novels, "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides," became memorable theatrical films brimming with drama and fascinating personal conflict. Another of his works, "The Water Is Wide," became a less memorable 1974 film, "Conrack," starring Jon Voight and Hume Cronyn. Hallmark Hall of Fame is taking another stab at the novel but with mixed success. While not without charm and elegant cinematography, this CBS remake rushes too quickly to a mushy conclusion and, in the end, offers little justification for taking a second pass at the story.
The novel, adapted by Jonathan Estrin, was inspired by Conroy's experience in the late 1960s as a teacher of black children in a tiny public school on an island off the South Carolina coast. Mostly neglected by the white mainland school board, the kids were being taught by Mrs. Brown (Alfre Woodard), a stern disciplinarian. Although black herself, Mrs. Brown believed all her charges were lazy, shiftless and slow.
Into this milieu of isolation and low expectations comes young Conroy, played by newcomer Jeff Hephner. Fresh out of college and engaged to a widow with a young daughter, he defies the conventional wisdom and disdains corporal punishment. The children in this Southern version of "To Sir, With Love" respond immediately, achieving academically at a rate that puts them on a direct course toward careers in rocket science or brain surgery.
Director John Kent Harrison is careful not to overreach as he goes for the emotional truth of each scene, but the story itself is squishy-soft and lacks the nuance needed to make credible the transformation of the kids, the parents and, especially, Mrs. Brown. As for Conroy, he is pretty much the same when the movie ends as he was when it started: a free spirit with an open mind and a suspicion of authority. A couple of flashbacks to the ranting of Conroy's martinet of a father offer more distraction than insight. In the end, Conroy's response to the retribution of his superiors is no different than what it might have been had he not been subject to Dad's verbal abuse.
The young actors chosen to play the students are uniformly well-cast, but a few other problems arise. Scenes with Conroy's fiancee (Julianne Nicholson) do almost nothing to advance the story. At the same time, though Hephner has the requisite likability for the role, Harrison has a hard time getting the actor to hold his own in scenes in which he confronts Woodard's Mrs. Brown and the autocratic school superintendent, superbly played by Frank Langella.
And what are we to make of the blatant racism that underlies the entire story? It is, throughout the entire movie, the elephant in the room about which no one even whispers.
THE WATER IS WIDE
CBS
Hallmark Hall of Fame Prods. in association with Fox Television Studios
Credits:
Executive producers: Richard Welsh, Brent Shields
Director: John Kent Harrison
Teleplay by: Jonathan Estrin
Based on the novel by: Pat Conroy
Director of photography: Kees Van Oostrum
Production designer: William Cruse
Editor: Michael Ornstein
Music: Jeff Beal
Set decorator: Marthe Pineau
Casting by: Lynn R. Kressel
Cast:
Pat Conroy: Jeff Hephner
Mrs. Brown: Alfre Woodard
Piedmont: Frank Langella
Barbara: Julianne Nicholson
Edna: LaTanya Richardson
Bennington: James Murtaugh
Ethel: Ivana Grace
Charles: Marcus Carl Franklin
Saul: Cole Hawkins
Cindy Lou: Halle Brown
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