THE COUNTRY GIRL

This 1954 drama won two Academy Awards—Best Actress (Grace Kelly) and Best Screenplay (George Seaton). An alcoholic actor, here portrayed by Stacy Keach, is making a comeback in a new play. All through rehearsals he is kept from falling apart by his long-suffering “country girl” wife (Mare Winningham), who has become hard and fierce from her years of struggling with him. The director (Harry Hamlin), mistaking her demeanor for abusiveness, fights with her constantly, all the while falling in love with her in spite of himself. Hamlin comes off forced, graceless, and under-rehearsed. Keach lacks the charm that makes both the wife’s sacrifices and the director’s belief in him plausible. In contrast, Winningham is superb in a difficult role in which she must reveal to the audience the heart that her character is hiding under a bitter facade. Y.R. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2011]