With Jim Sabatini

The Yellow Handkerchief

Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, some violence, language and thematic elements
Reviewed by: Jim
Release date: February 26, 2010	Released by: Samuel Goldwyn Films

This contemporary interpretation of a 1977 film drawn from Readers Digest may be lackadaisical for some and, at times, almost like an arthouse variant of The Notebook.

The Yellow Handkerchief stars William Hurt, Kristen Stewart, and Eddie Redmayne, and has been in the can for awhile, and intermittently overcomes its thematic familiarity through its performances and understatedness.

Essentially, director Udayan Prasad and scribe Erin Dignam have situated the source material to post-Katrina Louisiana on the road in a gentle approach.

The thoughtful approach to the material centers on a transforming trip of three strangers in the Bayou State who co-exist with a respective loneliness.

Ostracized Native-American Gordy (Redmayne) is a thin, sweet, if awkward guy with a nice convertible offering a lift to a desiring teenager Martine (Stewart of the hit Twilight films and evincing some of her role in Adventureland) dealing a very outgoing relationship. Besides her need to get away, Hurt's damaged middle-aged Brett joins the excursion, as the laconic humble former oil rigger turns out to be a kind of father-figure for them.

Prasad allows for Hurt (in a well deserved prominent part) to perceptively involve an audience with his ex-con through his recollections of a romance with boat dealer May (Maria Bello) whom he longs for on the way to the Big Easy in Bible Belt territory.

If The Yellow Handkerchief strains in realizing its ability to engage a necessary humanistic change, it has a demonstrable spirit especially through a mercurial Gordy and Brett, even if Martine's maturity may be hampered in a brusque way. And, though the focus and direction of this journey relative to the starting point are issues for a loose narrative there is something suitably heartfelt, with a professional production featuring lush lensing of Chris Menges from the rural to the urban jungle.