World premoering at the Sundace Film Fest, Stacking (aka Season of Dreams), Martin Rosen’s dreay drama does not do any servie to its taented cast, which includes Christine Lahti, Frederic Forrest, Megan Follows, Jason Gedrick, James Gammon, Jacqueline Brookes, and Irene Dailey.
Grade: C
Like Country and Places in the Heart, two superior farming pictures, Stacking is femme-centered, in this case an adolescent, who’s trying to comprehend the morass that constitutes the adult world.
Set in the summer of 1954, in Montana’s beautiful meadows, the film contains all the familiar issues and characters of that genre. They include: A strong-willed girl (Meagan Follows) coming of age; a stranded woman (Christine Lahti) who wants more excitement; a beer-guzzling handyman (Frederic Forrest); an itinerant outsider-photographer (Peter Coyote).
Having been made under the auspices of American Playhouse and Sundance Institute, two outfits prone to mistake virtue for virtuosity, the film’s homespun honesty is unmistakable. But there is no real reason for the movie to exist, not in its current, shapeless form.
Cast
Christine Lahti as Kathleen Morgan
Frederic Forrest as Buster McGuire
Megan Follows as Anna Mae Morgan
Jason Gedrick as Gary Connaloe
James Gammon as Clate Connaloe
Jacqueline Brookes as Mrs. Connaloe
Irene Dailey as Mrs. McGuire
Ray Baker as Dan Morgan
Peter Coyote as Photographer
Kaiulani Lee as Connie van Buskirk
