Thoughts on Steel Magnolias

via Giphy

"I have to tell you, your nephew Marshall is a little piece of heaven right here on Earth."

"They're family and I love them, but they do look like they've all been carved out of cream cheese."

*Clairee shares phony smiles with Marshall's family*

"Clairee, I'm surprised at you, talking about your kin that way."

"As somebody always said, 'If you can't say anything nice about anybody, come sit by me.'"

You don't have to be gay to like Steel Magnolias, but it helps. Actually, it's more beneficial if you're a certain type of gay. You can't just be a movie queen, you have to be a weepy movie queen. Around 2002, Premiere declared Beaches was the most shameless tearjerker, women's division, since 1987*. Sally Field, Dolly Parton, the ghost of director Herbert Ross, etc. could have demanded a recount.

*Field of Dreams won for the men's division.

A lot happens to six southern women over the course of three years. M'Lynn (Sally) loses her daughter in the expected sense when Shelby (Julia Roberts) gets married. She ends up gradually, heartrendingly and ultimately losing Shelby, who goes for her "thirty minutes of wonderful (instead of) a lifetime of nothing special" by getting pregnant while knowing it will jeopardize her health.

Forgive the long digression ...

My colleague-editor is a big fan of Steel Magnolias and we ended up talking about Shelby's motivation. She says Shelby was manipulated by Jackson (Dylan McDermott). I think Shelby was more a victim of society's "you'll never be a complete woman until you've been a mother" bull. If the trivia at IMDB is true and playwright-screenwriter Robert Harling's former brother-in-law did remarry within six months of becoming a widower, I suppose it supports my colleague-editor's reasoning. No matter why, Shelby's choice earned her criticism in Susan Isaacs' Brave Dames and Wimpettes. There's some discussion on the movie's TV Tropes page about just how cornered Shelby and/or Jackson were when it came to becoming parents. I'll just say that "my medical history" ruling out adoption and M'Lynn's comment about how her body has been through so much implies Shelby (i.e. Susan Harling Robinson) had more issues than what was depicted. On a final, shallow note, I became distracted by Julia's flared nostrils during the big kitchen scene.

... digression over

*Clairee has found Ouiser following Shelby's funeral*

"Go away."

"Okay, alright, hit me then, I deserve it."

"You are evil and you must be destroyed."

"Mother Nature's taking care of that faster than you could."

On paper, Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) and Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine) would probably be the "C team" of the main characters. Ouiser has an arc of being a bitch to, uh, being less of a bitch. And Clairee ... buys a radio station. But the two characters make up for their lack of compelling situations by being some of the movie's most reliable comic relief. I would watch a movie that's nothing but Clairee unmistakably getting under Ouiser's skin, knowing it will evoke a full throttle response.

We're left with Truvy (Dolly) and Annelle (Daryl Hannah). It breaks my heart to declare Dolly the ensemble's weakest link. It's not because of her performance, it's because we're kept at arm's length from her character. I suspect Harling wrote Truvy as a married woman because he already had enough widows (Ouiser's one, too, right?) and if she was single, it would take away from the impact of what's going on with Annelle. I hope Sam Shepard, who played Truvy's sorta-estranged husband Spud, enjoyed the easy paycheck.

If the use of Easter, followed by Christmas, the Fourth of July, Halloween and Easter again is too subtle (Spoiler: it isn't), one could tell that time is passing just by keeping an eye on Annelle. She's an eager to please nerd! She's an eager to please slut! She's embraced her Christianity, regained her glasses and is getting on everybody's nerves! She's embraced her Christianity but has lightened up! She's very, very pregnant! Hannah does what she can with the character, but it feels like Annelle's there largely for visual comic relief. Hey, if it breaks up the monotony of the joke tsunami ...

"A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste."

Recommended with reservations.

Thoughts:

-- Box Office: Grossing nearly $83.8 million on a $15 million budget, this opened at No. 4 and came in at No. 14 for 1989.

-- Awards Watch: Years ago at the AV Club, former commentator Jay See wrote that you could pinpoint the movie in Steel Magnolias where Sally decided that she wanted a third Oscar. She ended up only receiving a Golden Globe nomination, losing to Michelle Pfeiffer in the Best Actress in a Drama category. Julia, who won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress, went on to lose in that same category at the Oscars. 

-- We talk about questionable nominations now ... Shirley struck out twice at the 1991 BAFTAs, with her work in Postcards from the Edge losing in the lead actress category to Jessica Tandy (they were up against Julia for Pretty Woman and Michelle Pfeiffer again) and her work in Steel Magnolias losing in the supporting category to Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost. Shirley and Olympia also lost at the American Comedy Awards to Julie Kavner for New York Stories. Voters apparently couldn't get a read on this movie. It won a People's Choice for Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture, tied with Batman.

-- Critic's Corner, the actresses:

• Dolly: "She is one of the sunniest and most natural of actresses," Roger Ebert wrote. Imagining that she probably saw Truvy as an against-type role, Hal Hinson concluded it's still well within her wheelhouse. "She's just wearing fewer rhinestones."
• Sally: "Field, as always, is a lead ball in the middle of the movie," according to David Denby, New York. M'Lynn giving her kidney to Shelby brought out David's bitchy side. "I can think of a lot more Sally Field organs that could be sacrificed."
• Shirley: "(She) attacks her part with the ferociousness of a pit bull," Hinson wrote. "The performance is so manic that you think she must be taking off-camera slugs of Jolt." I actually agree. If there was anyone playing to the cheap seats in this movie, it's Shirley.
• Olympia: "Excruciating, sitting on her southern accent as if each obvious sarcasm was dazzlingly witty," Denby wrote.
• Daryl: "Miss Hannah's performance is difficult to judge," according to Vincent Canby, which seems to suggest he took a genuine "if you can't say something nice ..." approach.
• Julia: "(She acts) with the kind of mega-intensity the camera cannot always absorb," Canby wrote. That comment is so fascinating in light of the 30 years Julia has spent as a Movie Star. She is big. It's the audience who had to play catch up. And on that drag-ish note ...

-- Critic's Corner, the film: "You feel as if you have been airlifted onto some horrible planet of female impersonators," Hinson wrote. Canby: "Is one supposed to laugh at these women, or with them? It's difficult to tell." Every review I read acknowledged the less than naturalistic dialogue in ways both complimentary (Ebert loved the way the women talked) and cutting (Harling wrote too much exposition, repeating himself like a teenager telling a story, Denby wrote). Harling wrote with sincerity and passion, Canby acknowledged, but it's still a work of "bitchiness and greeting card truisms." The ending was less likely to inspire feeling good as it was feeling relieved, according to Denby. "(It's) as if a group of overbearing, self-absorbed, but impeccable mediocre people at least exit from the house."

-- Similar to the last stage-to-screen adaptation Dolly starred in, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (whose Broadway production closed for good the weekend its movie opened), the original production of Steel Magnolias didn't seem to get much of a post-movie bump. It closed on Feb. 25, 1990. 

-- Fanservice Junction: Also similar to Whorehouse, we have a scene set in a men's locker room. Like MarkInTexas said, it's utterly gratuitous, but it sure helped me enjoy the movie.

-- Castmember Connections: Bibi Besch and Janine Turner would play mother and daughter again on Northern Exposure. I also realized that Julia Roberts might be the only actress to have played love scenes opposite Dylan McDermott and Dermot Mulroney. If there are others, please let me know.

-- I found it interesting that Truvy, who I already mentioned is married, says she'll have sweet dreams with a slice of Shelby and Jackson's wedding cake. According to legend, placing a piece under your pillow ensures you'll dream of the person you're going to wed. I've never tried it, has anyone here?

-- Like I mentioned before, if there's anyone of the magnolias I can identify with, it's Clairee. Although there's maybe more than a little Annelle, too.

-- "I need a job in the worst way and I didn't know if you would hire someone who may or may not be married to someone who might be a dangerous criminal. But, Miss Truvy, I swear to you that my personal tragedy will not interfere with my ability to do good hair."

-- Next: The Little Mermaid. On deck: Back to the Future Part II.