WHEN WE LAST SPOKE

US, 2019, 108 minutes, Colour.

Corbin Bernsen, Melissa Gilbert, Cloris Leachman, Chandler Head, Derby Camp, Lacy Camp, Alicia Fusting, Johanna Jowett, Julia Denton, Danny Boaz.

Directed by Joanne Hock.

This is a faith film but a popular family story told for a wide audience, especially American.

There are a few church sequences but going to church, Sunday worship, are not to the fore. There is an amount of God language, grace before meals, going to heaven, speaking of Providence, and a father berating God angrily at the death of his son in Vietnam.

Most of the film is set in 1967 although it opens in 1997 and goes back. In 1997, two sisters have been antagonistic for a long time. One has moved away from the family home in the town called Fireside. The other has remained, with her grandfather as he aged, and speaking on the local radio station, affable chatting with the townspeople who listen in to her.

In 1967, their father has been sent to Vietnam, their mother abandoning them with their father’s parents. These grandparents are played by Corbin Bernsen and Melissa Gilbert (and, for many, memories of The Little House on the Prairie). At one stage, their father’s grandmother, suffering from eccentricity and dementia, lands at the house and has to be cared for. She is played by Cloris Leachman.

The film shows the relationship between the two sisters, on the one hand, protective, on the other, often antagonistic. They are mocked at school because of their absent father and mother. They get into fights. But, there is a nice boy who defends them (and turns up in the latter part of the film in 1997). The girls misinterpret some behaviour on the part of the local manager of the shop, for independent purposes, a pre-Dolly Parton looking and sounding character. The girls think she is carrying on with their grandfather and join with a friend at a sleepover in throwing toilet paper all around the front garden and trees. They have to apologise.

Eventually, the grandmother dies – the church sequence, brief.

The latter part of the film has the daughter who is left town driving cross-country to return, her sister thinking she had not heard any of her requests, the two meeting, clashing, their grandfather dying, but finding some kind of reconciliation.

1. The story of two sisters? The title and the tone? Memories, forgiveness, reconciliation?
2. A faith film, God language, providence of God, questioning of God and suffering, some church sequences? Faith people, not evangelical, taking church for granted?
3. The opening, the father with the two daughters, his going off to Vietnam? The mother watching, her dress and manner, the phone call, leaving, preparing the girls, the car, taking them to their grandparents, their pleading with her not to go?
4. The cosy name of the town, Fireside? The sequences in 1967, the two girls and their life with their grandparents, their great-grandmother?
5. The scenes in 1997, Juliet and her comments on the radio, folksy and talking to the townspeople? The contrast with Evangeline, dress and manner, absence for such a long time?
6. The portrait of the grandparents, the touch of the Norman Rockwell, the farm, chickens, cows, but not many farm sequences? Home life, Walt, his humour, love for Ruby, cheerful, spoiling the girls, ice creams and gifts, the parcels from their mother? His friendship with Selma, the girls later misinterpreting a scene? The admiration for Evangeline, clothes, manner, and her remembering the details of every meal!
7. The girls at school, the bullying boy, William and his interventions, Juliet protecting Evangeline?
8. The girls and their reactions, squabbling, Evangeline in the tire and Juliet turning it, her being sick? The difference in ages, Evangeline and her ingenuity, staring at Selma? Juliet protective? Their friend from school, the sleepover, the gossip, seeing sombre and assuming it was Walt, the toilet paper in the trees? Ruby’s reaction, sombre explaining what it happened, cleaning up?
9. The Vietnam sequences, their father, war service, helicopters, the buildup to fighting, injury, his writing the letters, his death? The military coming with the announcement of his death? The girls and their talk of his being in heaven and not coming back?
10. The arrival of Grandma Claiborne, age, dementia, manner, in the house, taking over, wanting to cook, her room, memories of her husband, going to the beach to build sand castles, the two girls in charge, her telling her history of being a dancer, the flashback to her dancing, meeting George? The Pearl Fishers and everybody dancing?
11. Walt, his absence after his sons death, revealing that he went to New York to seek out the widow, her grief, her disappearance?
12. Grandma Claiborne, her deterioration, her death? Funeral, the church, prayer?
13. 1997, Juliet and phoning Evangeline, the answer, Evangeline and her travels cross country, arriving, hearing Juliet on the radio, the radio station, the confrontation?
14. Walt, dying, his joy in seeing Evangeline, their going through things in the attic? The sadness of his death?
15. William, from school days, approaching Juliet, the pie raffle, the wedding?
16. A faith film with the faith light touch.