Scottish director Bill Forsythe's first effort for a major Hollywood studio was 1987's Housekeeping, a touching but resolutely unsentimental coming-of-age story boasting one of Christine Lahti's more under-appreciated performances. When Lahti's frizzy-haired, glassy-eyed Aunt Sylvie becomes the surrogate mother to two nieces, Ruth and Lucille, her dreamy philosophies and pack-rat behavior cause a split between the high-minded Lucille and the more pensive Ruth, played with an unforced grace by the young Sarah Walker. Rather than presenting Sylvie as the screen-tested stereotype of the lovable eccentric, Lahti and Forsythe make her increasingly more ambiguous as the film nears its conclusion, and the chasm between the two sisters' lifestyles takes on a bittersweet, almost tragic quality -- shadings which may have turned off audiences expecting more lighthearted fare. Lahti followed Housekeeping with a string of stellar roles in such films as Running on Empty; for Forsythe, the film would be the beginning of many post-production clashes with Hollywood studios. The haunting Pacific Northwest locales were shot by frequent Forsythe collaborator Michael Coulter. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi
