PLACES IN THE HEART (1984) (***)
Robert Benton won an Academy Award for this film's screenplay, which is actually the weakest element of the production. Loosely based on his own experiences, he develops a solid central story and then leaves it for a subplot that is less interesting and never connects back to the main story or themes.
Edna Spalding (Sally Field, NORMA RAE) is a widow in the Depression era South. If she doesn't find a way to make money soon, she will lose her house and possibly lose her two children. A black, day laborer named Moze (Danny Glover, THE COLOR PURPLE) comes to her door looking for work and suggests that she plant cotton on her 40 acres of open land. Banker Albert Denby (Lane Smith, THE MIGHTY DUCKS) hounds her about her bi-yearly house payments and uses her situation to pawn off his blind brother-in-law, Will (John Malkovich, DANGEROUS LIASONS), to her as a border. In the subplot, Edna's sister Margaret Lomax (Lindsay Crouse, THE VERDICT) works as a beautician to play the bills as her out-of-work husband Wayne (Ed Harris, THE TRUMAN SHOW) sleeps with the married schoolteacher Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan, FIELD OF DREAMS).