The Grass Harp

The Grass Harp is just about as good a film as can be made from Truman Capote's ethereal novella. That may sound like faint praise, but considering that the source material defied translation to the stage as both a straight play and a musical, it's actually a considerable achievement. Not that the film is perfect, mind you. Kirk Ellis and Stirling Silliphant's screenplay can't quite capture the wistful, delicate flavor of the novel, and the quirkiness of the characters is better suited for the printed page; onscreen, they have a tendency to get a bit cloying. This is partially the fault of director Charles Matthau, who does fall prey to turning some of the gentle emotionalism of the piece into greeting-card sentiments. However, Matthau does a fine job with his cast, an assemblage of talent that is staggering in such a small film. While one can quibble with a few of the accents, the performances themselves are excellent. Piper Laurie is sheer perfection as Dolly, creating a vividly realized portrait of a character that in other hands could come across as blandly mild. She's matched by Sissy Spacek in a startlingly change-of-pace performance that demonstrates the dominance and power that the actress often has to keep under wraps. Walter Matthau is unusually reflective, Nell Carter a sassy delight and Jack Lemmon marvelously oily in smaller parts, and Edward Furlong is near-perfect as the character through whose eyes the story is being told. Harp is not a great film, but it's a film with a great cast. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide