source: Blue Sky

Trailer—Blue Sky

Blue Sky

Jessica Lange owns Blue Sky big time and it's no surprise she won an Oscar for her emotionally controlled performance. Tommy Lee Jones should have also won but not to be.

Lange's convincing portrayal of the neurotic, alcoholic wife, and Tommy Lee's loving, patient coping-with (and covering for) her erraticisms make for a memorable first half. Unfortunately, the whole thing crashes down into preposterous infantile fantasy, with the woman unaccountable metamorphosing into a combination of Nancy Drew and all three of Charlie's Angels to save her husband from durance vile (Beethoven did it better in Fidelio)... As a guy, I'm not supposed to like "relationship" movies, but this one would have been infinitely better left as exactly that, with the comic-book adventure left out.

Powerful drama about a reserved military man who deals with constant embarasssment at the hands of his sexually frustrated wife. He loves her, but doesn't really know what to do with her. Superb performances by Jones and Lange (Oscar winner) highlight the film, while the story loses interest when the focus shifts more toward a nuclear cover up involving Jones.

You get the sense that we are meant to walk away from this film thinking it was something really special. Lange even won an Oscar for playing the bi polar slutty housewife. I can't help but feel that it all falls apart, especially in the second half. Things get wrapped up far too quickly and easily, nothing though is really resolved, especially in a realistic manner. In the end it's another film that leaves you wanting to watch something good.

wow! Jessica Lange is so good in this movie it is embarrassing! She owns the screen in every one of her scenes. Tommy Lee Jones to his credit- lets her be the star of the movie. Though the plot is a little implausible- just like David sent off Bathsheba's husband to certain death- to seduce her- the army didn't reckon with the power of a strong and slightly crazy woman. The teenagers in the film add to its poignancy. On the surface the Marshall family seems dysfunctional- but actually- with love they function very well.

The film is about the relationship of husband and wife, their troubles and how they cope with it. It also had a side plot about underground nuclear testing, which I don't think was that powerful or had that much of an impact for it to carry though as the finale, which also seem to be wrapped up uneventfully. But the main story is their troubled relationship, and how through good, bad and worse they get through it with each other's support. Jessica Lange's performance as an unstable woman was amazing, not over the top in which it would have been typically done, but was portrayed truely and its fine nuance conveyed the subtle change in her mental state.

There is an old Calypso ditty that states "If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, never take a pretty woman to be your wife." If you want to have a career in the Army, you might also want to avoid bi-polar women. Tommy Lee Jones (The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) was an Army Major, a nuclear engineer working on atomic tests, that had a gorgeous wife who was a little crazy. Jessica Lange (Broken Flowers) was awesome as his wife and won every award that year for her performance. She deserved every win in a movie that was a testament to love. No matter how crazy, Major Marshall (Jones) was there for her because of his love. And her love brought her out of her disorder long enough to save him. This was director Tony Richardson's last film and he made it a winner all the way.