Blue Sky

The opening credits of Tony Richardson's Blue Sky depict an assortment of magazines, all advertising glamor and sophistication. Photos of Hollywood starlets strewn about amid promises of beauty if use this product. All the things Carly Marshall (Jessica Lange) yearns for but are just out of her reach.

As the wife of Major Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones), she is expected to be a dutiful housewife and mother. But there's something not quite right with Carly, a fact Hank and their daughters are all too acutely aware of. But as the Mitchells settle in on a new army base, things get more complicated.

There are elements in Blue Sky that are reminiscent of Richardson's films during the British New Wave all those years ago. Co-writer Rama Stagner based Carly and Hank's marriage on her own parents' relationship, and strained connections are no stranger to Richardson. The problem is that it doesn't feel as fraught as, say, Look Back in Anger or The Entertainer.

Indeed, Blue Sky feels incomplete as a story, with many parts that don't always interlock. Granted, Richardson wasn't in the best of health during production (he died of AIDS complications sometime after; the film then sat on the shelf for nearly three years), but even then, he still made the most of it. It's a decent swan song for the director.

Blue Sky mainly relies on Lange (who ended up winning an Oscar) and Jones' work to carry it through but they succeed in doing that. Overall, however, it has good ideas but they are clumsily put together in certain scenes. Still, it's enough for it to be watchable.

My Rating: ****