Undescribable Perfection

A Masterpiece!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

When writer Winona Ryder goes to visit her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn) who is living with her sister (Anne Bancroft), she becomes involved with the women who are part of an annual quilting bee. What she learns will not only help her in her own writing but in lessons she can teach the women who will come to her in her own future. This sweet and touching drama is the story of these group of women who help Ryder through a rough batch as she decides whether or not to return to her fiancé (Dermot Mulroney). Ryder learns each of these women's stories, usually involving the men in their life, and each of those tales surrounding their influence in their parts of the quilting will be an influence for her as she discovers her own destiny.The Oscar Winning Burstyn and Bancroft are gems together as sisters, facing their own past as Bancroft married the love of Burstyn's life and watched the two of them fall back together. In spite of that, the bond between the sisters never bended, and influenced Bancroft, a powerful artist in her own right, to use her anger in her art in creating a special wall. The dignified Maya Angelou tells of her aunt's own quilt, which surrounded the crow that lead her to the love of her life. Esther Rolle has a powerful cameo in flashback as this aunt. Angelou then tells how she fell in love with the young white boy who left her pregnant and how this brought her into the lives of Ryder's family. The sweet Jean Simmons gives a poignant performance telling Ryder of how her artist husband couldn't help his own infidelities and how she came to accept him for who he was, but how destiny has changed her own plans. Then, Alfre Woodard, as a spunky Haitan woman, tells of how she never allowed herself to become trapped by a man, something she sadly regrets but realized was beyond her control.Each of these women have something powerful to offer, but perhaps the most powerful of these characters is the former champion diver played by stage legend Lois Smith who is both feared and admired in the community and gets a great final scene to show how far she has come. A terrific ensemble in a lightly plotted drama shows that less can be more in creating terrific art.

How To Make an American Quilt is a 1995 movie whose plot is based on a novel. I knew this heart-warming movie in an English discussion class of the University. I watched it over and over both with my classmate in the class and myself in my house. First time I watched it, I felt it was so slow. But I became very much to sympathize with the characters at the end of the semester, even though I knew it is a fictional movie.The main character, Finn is 26 years old. According to her, it is enough age to marry. She is engaged her boyfriend, Sam but she is not sure if he is the right person for her to spend the rest of her life. The idea of Finn is to take a time to think and escape her grandmother's house over the summer with a plausible excuse, for working on her master's thesis. The movie is not only focus on Finn but also on the stories of several women. They are "quilting bees" who make Finn's wedding quilt at the house of Finn's grandmother. During Finn stay the house, she is told and shares their story.One bad thing of this movie is that it is not for males because it is mostly about woman. And, no differ from other dramas, you need to watch not only one time but also several times to understand the real mean of this movie. I recommend you to watch it when you have a time. This is the movie I would like to watch again when I become 30's, 40's and later on. Even though, the story of "quilting bees" are heavy, it warms my heart! This touching movie is a true life of women.

A true classic. The acting, the character development, the music, all sewn together like a beautiful quilt. The film portrays in narrative and relatively long flashback sequences, the life stories (from the 1940-1990 time period) of the various characters weaving a quilt for the main character, a young soon-to-be-married girl.Several story lines were a little sad, but there was a reality to the portrayals. And there were bright rays of hope.The scenery was beautiful as well.B Zion

Creaking with metaphors, it is a lovely story to watch, with a knockout cast well-skilled in ensemble acting. But it plods along, documenting the making of a wedding quilt that incorporates the lives of each person who contributes to it. Finn Dodd (what a hideous name), played by Ryder, at her tentative and mysterious best, is spending the summer with her aunts, while finishing her thesis. She is also engaged to Sam (Mulroney), who seems to get needier, as Finn seems to be getting coldfeet. The quilt is a gift for Finn's wedding, and is a labor of love among a group of women whose lives are intertwined in the northern California wine country, each of them sewing a panel that expresses the theme, "Where love resides." But love resides in many different places among these women – from sisters Glady Jo and Hy, entertainingly played by Bancroft and Burstyn, who are exactly the kinds of aunts anyone would like to have in their family, to the prickly Em (Simmons), and the unconventional Constance (Nelligan). So many different stories, as interpreted in quilting panels, do not always make a pretty quilt, and much negotiating and compromise is the very nature of putting the quilt together, as it is in life. Not Ryder's best work, but Burstyn and Bancroft are delightful as the pot-smoking aunts, rockin' out to Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry." Simmons is a pleasure to see – with quite a lengthy career behind her, she doesn't appear often. Samantha Mathis is always charming – it would be nice if things would really *click* for her career. Kate Nelligan is fabulous – I was never able to abide her work, presuming her to be like the kind of tight-assed, judgmental characters that she portrayed. But I unexpectedly caught her in "Frankie and Johnny" (with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer), and could not believe I was watching the woman I had scorned for so long. Now I look forward to seeing her every time she appears. In spite of many fascinating and multi-faceted characterizations, this vehicle does not serve any of these actresses well. One expects Greatness out of such an enormous and worthy cast, but the Entertain-o-meter stops short of Just Okay, and one wishes that such talent had been applied to a script that utilized their collective talent better. The concept of the story revolving around this group-effort is a fine concept, but director, Moorhouse, has to work hard to keep the story from fragmenting into oblivion. Though not weighing in as a heavyweight, the multitude of fine performances ensures that it is fine entertainment on a lazy day.