Review of Love Field

Introduction

Blonde housewife Lurene Hallett is desperate to meet John and Jackie Kennedy. She takes her neighbour to Love Field, at Dallas Airport hoping to get close to the golden couple. The date is the 22nd November 1963. When the President is shot dead Lurene is devastated and tells her husband she intends to travel to the funeral. Furious, he confiscates the car keys but in the middle of the night she takes the Greyhound bus. On the bus she meets a black man and his young daughter. They are travelling to Washington and the little girl is strangely silent. Lurene finds herself opening up to the reluctant man and events conspire to keep them together.

Made in 1992 this is a vehicle for the talents of Michelle Pfeiffer already a big star at this point. For Dennis Haysbert it is a substantial role early in his career and not to be repeated until his success as President Palmer in the series `24`.

Video

Visuals have been done well with the attention to costume and location being important here. The use of contemporary footage helps set the scene, particularly the newsreader who announces that President Kennedy has been declared dead with obvious emotion in his voice.

Audio

The film has a fairly unmemorable and mainly unobtrusive soundtrack. There are no obvious problems with the sound.

Features

This is a basic pay and play disc.

Conclusion

It`s an interesting angle on the Kennedy story. It is seen obliquely from the point of view of the ordinary Dallas housewife. She is desperate to capture the glamour and mystery of the Kennedys whilst trying not to acknowledge the problems with her own sad existence. She sees everything in literally black and white and her naïve attitude towards the race problems in America is shown up when she gets involved with her travelling companion.

I enjoyed it and if it makes you think a little about how things are not always as straightforward as they appear then that`s good too. Michelle Pfeifer acquits herself well and Dennis Haysbert, (24`s hapless President) fills the screen well in his role. The little girl playing Haysbert`s daughter is exceptional. There are one or two moments that appear slightly far fetched and the ending frankly fairy tale-ish but that`s the movies for you.