Farnsworth Provides Stability In ‘Straight’

“The Straight Story” **-1/2

Location: The Met

Credits: Directed by David Lynch, starring Richard Farnsworth, Sissy Spacek, Everett McGill, John Farley, Kevin P. Farley, Harry Dean Stanton.

Running time: 1:51.

Rating: G.

Much of the pre-release hype about “The Straight Story” involves the supposed change that it represents in David Lynch’s style.

Lynch, of course, is the other-worldly director of such bizarre films as “Eraserhead” and “Blue Velvet” and the passingly popular television series “Twin Peaks.” “The Straight Story,” in contrast, is the straightforward, true-life story about an Iowa farmer’s quest to drive his riding lawn mower several hundred miles to visit his long-estranged, now-dying brother.

A whole new Lynch, we are told. Lynch plays it straight, goes the refrain.

Well, maybe. But only to a limited degree.

True, there are no Dennis Hoppers sniffing nameless gases and screaming about the joys of sexual congress. And, true, there are no Robert Blakes made up to look like elfin bogeymen (think of “Lost Highway”).

There aren’t even any slick-haired Kyle MacLachlans extolling the virtues of cherry pie and “damn good” cups of coffee.

Instead, we have venerable Richard Farnsworth, age 79, portraying 73-year-old Alvin Straight who, in 1994, drove a John Deere mower 300 miles from his home in Laurens, Iowa, to Mt. Zion, Wis. Seems Alvin, who in the movie version is sickly and in need of a new hip (and who doesn’t have a driver’s license, thus his need to drive the mower), thinks it’s time to repair relations with his brother, (Harry Dean Stanton). Following a dispute, there’s been a decade of silence between them.

Farnsworth isn’t the most versatile actor. He doesn’t act so much as simply adapt a character to his own presence. But he can bring an amazingly effective presence to certain films, and he makes a perfectly believable Alvin. He demonstrates just the right amount of cussedness both to make the family estrangement seem credible and to convince us that, despite all obstacles put in his way, he will complete his journey.

The film that develops around him, though, is less plausible. From the beginning, it’s clear that Lynch is less concerned with capturing an objective reality than he is portraying reality in his own exaggerated way. The only difference is of degree.

The opening sequence of “The Straight Story,” for example, fulfills much the same function as the opening of “Blue Velvet”: Not only does it introduce us to the world that Lynch plans to study, but it reflects Lynch’s reaction to that world. You could describe that reaction is one of bemused alienation, or you describe it as an Andy Warhol kind of condescension.

Whatever, the film’s various characters mostly exhibit endearing, sometimes even cute qualities. Mower repairmen, for example, wear strange face bandages. Alvin’s “friends” act like a “Hee Haw” comedy troupe. An overweight woman suns herself next to a tray of food big enough to feed a Brownie troop.

This sense of caricature doesn’t hold for everyone. One young girl, obviously pregnant, spends the night with Alvin, sharing his food and campfire - and departs with a much-needed life lesson. A family in whose front yard Alvin almost crashes takes him in with what clearly is a generous act of kindness.

These characters, though, merely populate the various chapters of Alvin’s continuing story. Much like any other ensemble road flick, from “Lassie Come Home” to “Thelma and Louise,” Lynch’s movie invests everyone with an almost equal amount of emotional weight.

And, unfortunately, one character who does get added emphasis, Sissy Spacek, is one who shouldn’t. Spacek plays Alvin’s daughter, a woman with some sort of mental disability, and the Oscar-winning actress affects a stammer that comes across as both ridiculous and phony. (Note to Hollywood types trying to play these kinds of roles: Go back and study the superb work that a 16-year-old Leonard DiCaprio did in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”).

Ultimately, the main strength that “The Straight Story” has is Farnsworth, which is always an asset. Because as has been clear in everything from “The Grey Fox” to “The Natural,” Farnsworth represents the very essence of on-screen authenticity.

If only the rest of the film lived up to his standard.