The Yellow Handkerchief

Plot

A road trip through Louisiana transforms three strangers who were originally brought together by their respective feelings of loneliness.

Release Year: 2008

Rating: 6.8/10 (2,841 voted)

Critic's Score: 62/100

Director:
Udayan Prasad

Stars: William Hurt, Maria Bello, Kristen Stewart

Storyline
One lazy afternoon in a backwater Louisiana town, Martine takes a leap into an unfamiliar convertible. The driver, Gordy, an awkward young itinerant who eyed her in the diner earlier, isn't displeased to find this pretty sylph in his front seat. Soon they meet Brett, a laconic, humble man just released from prison. Martine isn't keen on going solo with Gordy, and now it's raining cats and dogs, so she invites Brett along, and the unlikely trio sets out, each person unsure of the destination. What ensues is a journey through the lush green byways of rural Louisiana and into the depths of these characters' souls.

Writers: Pete Hamill, Erin Dignam

Cast:

William Hurt
–

Brett Hanson

Maria Bello
–

May

Kristen Stewart
–

Martine

Eddie Redmayne
–

Gordy

Kaori Momoi
–

Motel Owner

Emmanuel Cohn
–

Male Doctor

Nurith Cohn
–

Female Nurse

Veronica Russell
–

Pregnant Warden

Grover Coulson
–

Farnsworth

Lisha Brock
–

Waitress

Lucy Faust
–

Snotty Girl

(as Lucy Adair Faust)

John Gregory Willard
–

Blonde

Rebecca Newman
–

Ilene

Ross Britz
–

Friend

Marshall Cain
–

Ferry Driver

Taglines:
A love lost in the past. A love struggling for a future.

Details

Official Website:
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Official site |

Release Date: 19 November 2009

Filming Locations: Morgan City, Louisiana, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: $15,500,000

(estimated)

Opening Weekend: $37,296
(USA)
(28 February 2010)
(7 Screens)

Gross: $317,040
(USA)
(16 May 2010)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

USA: 102 min

Did You Know?

Trivia:

To prepare for the role, William Hurt spent a night in Louisiana State Penitentiary – better known as Angola.

Quotes:

Brett Hanson:
I'm gonna ask you to marry me.

May:
You don't know a thing about me.

Brett Hanson:
Your whole life is in your face.

User Review

When slow is good, and actors shine

Rating: 9/10


A perfect crescendo. During an admittedly slow first half of the film,
the audience is drawn in to the actors and the cajun background, its
lush greenery and its languid place in Americana.

The actors hold up brilliantly at this pace — William Hurt is a
standout and a more-than-worthwhile Oscar candidate as the sullen,
"ghost"-like ex-con and Eddie Redmayne jumps to the fore as a bizarre,
overgrown child. The scenery and the pull of post-Katrina New Orleans
is powerful, forcing personal choices and sticking in the back of our
minds.

Then, when the action turns, and the plot suddenly speeds forward for
the latter half of the movie, the viewer has already been drawn so deep
inside these rich, pained characters and the twisted swampland that its
emotional force, punctuated by minute changes in Hurt's eyes, knowingly
elicits empathy and sympathy.

The force of the movie is the slowness, the languid pace that draws the
viewer in, and the acting, as good an ensemble as anything that I've
viewed this year. It is slow, but slow can be good, good as a cajun
conversation.