One day the slowly rising dissatisfaction of grandfather and granddaughters is disturbed when Jimmy asks his father for help: Helen is in trouble. Ulee sets off for Orlando to recover his mentally disturbed daughter-in-law from the care of some old friends of the couple. It turns out that these friends, Eddie and Ferris, had taken part in the robbery and have just found out that there is some money, which Jimmy was able to put away before his arrest. This is their demand: if Ulee is unable to come up with the money within one week, things will not look good for the granddaughters in his care.

The coming week is a testing time for the stressed man's energies. It is the climax of the honey season, and honey is what his livelihood depends on. He has to care for his psychiatrically overloaded daughter-in-law, who, in normal circumstances, would have been committed long before. And he has to find the money and cope with two hardened criminals.

But help comes from an unexpected quarter. His neighbour Connie Hope, who has her own problems, stands by Ulee and the family pulls itself together...

• Eddie and Ferris' threat is very real, but only takes a subordinate role in this story of the introverted beekeeper finding himself. This film is driven by the characters, in particular Ulee. Peter Fonda, who plays Ulee, knows that this is the best character he has ever played: "It's the kind of role you pay money to do."

Pain, loss, incomprehension and disappointment are Ulee's dominant feelings towards his peers, who are only granted a place in his life because of the situation. In consequence, Ulee has put up a barrier, with which he protects himself from any disturbance. But this summer events overtake him. Ulee has to crawl out of his shell and act, giving new meaning to responsibility towards his family. His contempt for his daughter-in-law, who left her daughters, comes to the fore. But she is to be the one to support him as far as is possible, together with her elder daughter, who knows when youthful rebellion has to take second place. Ulee learns to rely on his family and neighbourhood, and all will be able to rely on him.

Screenplay writer and director Victor Nunez is a lover of nuances, deep emotions and defence mechanisms. He has created a role for which only Peter Fonda could be suitable. In this season, no other film has managed to project the inner life of a character so powerfully onto screen and, at the same time, have great feeling of responsibility towards the people who depend on him. Seldom has a film allowed a broken family get back together with such respect and carefully overcome its own battle of the sexes. Ulee's Gold is almost two hours' worth of quality time, which in quiet moments will return to the minds of those who have seen it, and so is well worth the price of a cinema ticket.

ki, Park City – Berlin
picture ©: MGM
 
Germany: April 30th, '98
US: June 6th, '97
UK: April 3rd,'98
France: ?

Filmdata:

Official link:  http://www.teleport.com/~patv/uleegold.htm