Violets Are Blue is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Jack Fisk and starring Sissy Spacek and Kevin Kline. The film was distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Contents
Plot
After fifteen years of traveling around the world, famous photographer Gussie (Spacek) returns for a two-week break to the Maryland coastal resort where she grew up. She meets her high school sweetheart Henry (Kline), now married and running the local newspaper he inherited from his father. Soon after, an awkward and tension-filled romance ensues.
Cast
Sissy Spacek as Gussie Sawyer
Kevin Kline as Henry Squires
Bonnie Bedelia as Ruth Squires
John Kellogg as Ralph Sawyer
Jim Standiford as Addy Squires
Augusta Dabney as Ethel Sawyer
Kate McGregor-Stewart as Sara Mae
Annalee Jefferies as Sally
Mike Starr as Tony
Adrian Sparks as George
Production
The bulk of the filming took place in downtown Ocean City, MD, including scenes on the boardwalk and nearby Assateague Island. Local sailors in Maryland trained the films' stars Kevin Kline and Sissy Spacek on the basics of sailing so they could do their boat scenes without the use of any doubles. The film was shot from August-October 1984, and Director Jack Fisk worked on extensive editing cuts to please the studio, at the time commenting: “I believe that film thrives on a certain pressure, on not having enough time. But with 'Violets,' we were given too much time. They had us try too many things.” At its first studio screening in December 1984, the film had a running time of 1 hour, 47 minutes. The final cut was reduced to 90 minutes before the film was released in April 1986.
Reception
Upon the film's release, Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing "What’s interesting about “Violets Are Blue” is that it’s not necessarily the movie we expect it to be, and Spacek doesn’t necessarily play the role we expect from her. It’s a movie about adults making some hard choices, facing some inflexible realities in their lives. And when it’s over we realize it caused us to think about a couple of things: not only the road not chosen, but also the road that we have chosen and our responsibilities to it.". Ebert also praised the supporting performances of John Kellogg and Bonnie Bedelia, writing: "Although the characters of Gussie and Henry are played with great subtlety and warmth by Spacek and Kline, the best scenes in the movie belong to two of the supporting actors: Bedelia as Henry’s wife, and Kellogg as Gussie’s father. They stand up for what they believe in. They refuse to cave in to easy notions of romance or love or inevitability. Bedelia stands in her kitchen one day and clearly, unforgivingly lays out for her husband what his choices are, and it’s perhaps the key scene in the movie."
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 63% based on 5 positive and 3 negative critic reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.