Plot
On November 22, 1963, Dallas housewife Lurene Hallett (Michelle Pfeiffer) is obsessed with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Lurene feels a special connection with Jackie through her own loss of a child after Jackie's loss. Knowing that President John F. Kennedy and his wife will be visiting Dallas, Lurene travels to Love Field Airport to try to catch a glimpse of the couple as they arrive by plane. Lurene just misses shaking Jackie’s hand. Shortly afterward, she learns that the President has been assassinated. Lurene leaves her car in the street and rushes to watch the news through a store window. Lurene's anguish over Kennedy's death reflects the collective grief of the nation over this tragedy. She is determined to attend Kennedy's burial, even though her overbearing husband, Ray (Brian Kerwin), vetoes the plan.
A defiant Lurene leaves Ray a note, indicating she will be staying at the motel where they spent their honeymoon in Washington, D.C., intending to travel by bus to attend the funeral. During the bus journey, she charismatically befriends Jonell (Stephanie McFadden), the young black daughter of Paul Cater (Dennis Haysbert). After the bus has an accident, upon awaiting new transportation from a local police station, while being questioned by local authorities on his version of witnessing the accident, minus Paul's consent, Lurene takes Jonell to the restroom whereas while probing the child, she notices old wounds on Jonell's body. Upon hastily assuming that something is awry, Lurene asks Jonell whether Paul is her father, and the child breaks her silence to divulge that he isn’t. A panicked Lurene immediately calls the FBI to report a kidnapping. Moments after her seemingly "well-intentioned" interference, Lurene attempts to shelter the child while awaiting the police to arrive. Paul, having been thoroughly scrutinized by the local police for his testimony of the bus accident as a result of Lurene's over involvement, explains that Jonell's wounds are from an orphanage where she was taken after her mother’s death. He is indeed her father, who rescued Jonell, without permission, from the Texas orphanage where she was being abused however, Jonell does not remember him because he never married her mother. In showing Jonell pictures of himself with Jonell's mother as well as her as a baby, Lurene begins to believe his story yet Paul must now elude the authorities until he can reach Pennsylvania and fight for custody on his home turf bearing less racism from authorities.
With authorities on their way to the station, Paul and Jonell are required to evacuate the bus. While Lurene watches Jonell, Paul is forced to steal a car from a local repair shop to continue their journey. Lurene, through meddling, inadvertently misses the bus and inserts herself into the vehicle with the pair to commence on an increasingly difficult road trip across America. Meanwhile, due to Lurene's uninformed impromptu phone call from the police station the FBI now believes that Lurene has been kidnapped by Paul and informs Ray, her husband who is unaware of her whereabouts and has been awaiting her return from states away within their middle-class home.
The stolen vehicle breaks down near Tazewell, Virginia, where local rednecks spot the white woman travelling with a black man. While Lurene forages on foot for help, the clan depart and return in her absence to beat him severely. Lurene recalls that the parents of Hazel Enright, a work associate, resides nearby, and seeks help there. They tend to Paul's wounds and spend the night there, with Paul and Lurene sharing a furtive one-night sexual encounter that satisfies her yearning for a fulfilled marriage and the affection of an attentive partner. The next morning, Mrs. Enright’s (Louise Latham) disapproval of Lurene’s extramarital interracial relationship reminds Lurene that she is complicating the journey, and having been offered the family's car, Lurene offers to allow Paul and Jonell to proceed in her absence, but Paul requests that she continue the journey with them and they depart together.
In Washington DC, on the day of the Kennedy funeral, Ray is waiting foe Lurene at the motel she alluded to earlier. Lurene prefers to deal with Ray alone, leaving Paul and Jonell in the car. Ray argues with Lurene, and the argument turns violent with him striking her repeatedly. Paul intervenes, pretending to be the motel's manager. Despite Lurene's attempts to prove otherwise, Ray concludes that Lurene is allied with Paul and that they've had an affair. Ray pulls a gun, but Paul wrestles the gun from him and Lurene and Paul manage to get back unscathed to the car with Jonell and leave, but Ray notes the car and license. The police, having setup a road block, began investigating caes and a frantic Lurene jumps out, taking Jonell with her. Paul, whp had been driving is apprehended on the spot and sentenced to a year in jail for theft of the car that he stole from the repair shop whereas Lurene and Jonell are caught whole trying to escape and Lurene is apprehended; separating the trio.
Flashing forward to 1964 (as indicated by a Lyndon Johnson-Hubert Humphrey campaign poster attached to a tree), Lurene visits Jonell in a foster home and it is observed that she has been visiting regularly; indicative that she wasn't incarcerated for long and did not serve much (if any) time. Lurene explains to Jonell that her father will be returning to take her home later that day. As Lurene leaves the group home, Paul arrives to pick up Jonell. Upon exiting his cab, the two stop to talk, and Lurene informs Paul that she and Ray are divorced. The two share a long embrace, and both declare that they have absolutely no regrets about the decisions that either have made. Lurene, in The Enright's car, drives away; however, she turns the car around and rushes back into the group home to join Paul and Jonell. The movie concludes leaving viewers to project their fate. [4]
Depictions of racism in the film
Racism is prevalent throughout the film, as well as displays of discontent from the black community concerning Kennedy's efforts to improve race relations. Despite the efforts of the filmmakers to include the black perspective during this era, one critic complains that the black characters function "merely as analogies of oppression." [7] Criticism aside, it is realistic in its portrayals of violence against Paul by white men, by Lurene, and by her husband, Ray. Historically, it relates to findings of the Kerner Commission from 1968. This commission found that "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." Love Field shows differing opinions about Kennedy in the white and black communities, represented respectively by Lurene and Paul, specifically through Lurene's naïve point of view. For example, in one interaction between Mrs. Enright and Paul, she states, "I don't know when we started killing people to solve things," and he responds, "I didn't know we stopped." [8]
Reception
Although the film was made in 1990, Orion Pictures suffered crippling financial losses and filed for bankruptcy. It was not released until December 1992, in time for Oscar consideration. [6]
Release
The film was released on December 11, 1992, and grossed $1,949,148 in the United States. [9]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 40% based on reviews from 10 critics, with an average rating of 5.7/10. [10]
Janet Maslin in The New York Times wrote: "This modest film actually covers a lot of ground... Love Field brings remarkably few preconceptions to the telling of its understated story. The characters transcend stereotypes, but what really matters is the actors' ability to breathe these people to life." [11] Time Out was similarly positive, writing: "This affecting romantic comedy probes the gradations of racial prejudice still prevalent in the South despite JFK's best efforts... unaccountably denied a theatrical release in Britain, this is a most impressive and enjoyable work." [12] On the negative side, Variety described it as "a sincere, not fully realized 1960s drama that is yet another variation on the 'Where were you when you heard JFK was shot?' theme." [13] Hal Hinson in The Washington Post thought that "the interracial love affair that develops between this oddly matched pair never makes much sense." [14] Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that "the essential truth of the characters was being undercut by all the manufactured gimmicks of the plot." [15]
Critical consensus held that the primary reason to see the film was the Oscar-nominated performance of Michelle Pfeiffer. The New York Times wrote that a "character this flamboyant would risk sinking any film. But Ms. Pfeiffer, again demonstrating that she is as subtle and surprising as she is beautiful, plays Lurene with remarkable grace." [11] The Washington Post called the characterization "a marvel, but by now that is only to be expected. Watching her [Pfeiffer] discover new facets of her talent is one of the real pleasures of going to the movies these days. Done up with a '60s platinum bouffant and butterfly fake eyelashes, Pfeiffer plays Lurene as a big-hearted, motor-mouth ditz. But, even in the movie's earliest scenes, Pfeiffer suggests that Lurene has hidden depth; not unrevealed smarts, really, but innate decency and guilelessness... She's fully alive up there on the screen: a grounded angel, tarnished, funny and exquisitely soulful, even when the movie is dead." [14] Desson Howe wrote: "there is strong reason to watch Love Field simply for Pfeiffer. As the nobly oppressed father (a sort of clichéd, Sidney Poitier role), Haysbert is respectable and doe-eyed McFadden makes a fetching innocent. But Pfeiffer is the movie's sole engine. Tucking away her gratuitous beauty behind pancake makeup and that blonde hay-er, she's in effortless, sassy command." [16] Peter Travers in Rolling Stone was of the opinion that "Pfeiffer overcomes the poky direction of Jonathan Kaplan ( The Accused ) and the unfocused script by Don Roos (of Single White Female infamy). She weaves magic in a portrayal of striking grace notes... long after Love Field hits a dead end, Pfeiffer cuts a path to the heart." [17] Time Out called it a "marvellously touching, funny and credible performance," [12] while for Variety it was "yet another memorable characterization." [13] Roger Ebert congratulated her for a performance "which takes a woman who could have become a comic target and invests her with a certain dignity." [15] Stephen Farber in Movieline wrote: "As Lurene Hallett, a dreamy beautician obsessed with Jackie Kennedy, Pfeiffer confirms her growing range and power. Her skill with accents is beginning to rival Meryl Streep's, but even more impressive than her technical virtuosity is her emotional depth; she highlights the childlike romanticism and generosity of this simple woman." [18]
