The Grass Harp (1995)

Mia Kirshner as Maude Roirdan
Directed by Charles Matthau
Written by Truman Capote (novel), Stirling Silliphant (screenplay)
Cast Piper Laurie, Sissy Spacek, Edward Furlong, Sean Patrick Flanery, Mary Steenbergen
Genre Drama, Comedy
MPAA rating PG (for mild language and thematic elements)
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Synopsis

Based on the novel by Truman Capote and produced and directed by Charles Matthau, The Grass Harp is set in the 1940s in a small southern town and tells the story of how people learn to love and to change. After his mother dies, Collin Fenwick (child – Grayson Fricke; teen – Edward Furlong) comes to live with his father’s maiden cousins, Verena and Dolly Talbo. Verena (Sissy Spacek) is a rigid and proper businesswoman who owns half the stores in their small town. Collin prefers the company of Verena’s sister Dolly (Piper Laurie), who has a delicate and romantic soul, but her lack of practicality is a constant vexation to her sister. Catherine (Nell Carter) is the Talbos’ outspoken housemaid and Dolly’s closest friend. Collin also learns about life and love from the local retired Judge Charlie Cool (Walter Matthau) who himself discovers, when he meets Dolly Talbo, that his heart, once dry as an empty husk at the twilight of his life, can again be filled with love. It is clear to the townspeople that Collin, raised by this household of eccentric women, will have anything but a normal childhood.

When Dolly, Collin and Catherine leave the Talbo home for a tree house to escape Verena and to dream and talk, they set in motion a chain of comic events that will change their world and the lives of several townspeople. The trio’s friendship gives Dolly the courage to take control of her life and find love, self-respect and independence. Collin’s life opens up as he learns from Dolly of the “grass harp,” the unforgettable sound of wind rushing through the Indian grass whispering life’s secrets.

The cast of characters also features Morris Ritz (Jack Lemmon), a sly entrepreneur from Chicago who, for Verena Talbo, is a kindred spirit who teaches her a bitter lesson, and Amos Legrand (Roddy McDowall), the fey hair cutter whose upholstered barber chair is the town’s altar of gossip. Sister Ida (Mary Steenburgen) is a traveling evangelist with 15 children, whose free living ways scandalize the straight-laced town and make her an unlikely ally of Dolly’s.