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Never Quite Adds Up ....

This is the kind of movie that you see, and after you've seen it, realize you ought to have read the book instead. The characters were just too much for the director (or screenwriters) to handle.

This is the story of a young woman named Finn (Ryder), who is feeling overwhelmed by her university studies and commitment-ready boyfriend. To get away from it all, she spends the summer with her grandmother and aunt in a very small California town. Her grandmother, aunt and their quilting circle get together to make Finn's wedding quilt, and share stories of their past (and current) loves.

Some of the acting is quite good (e.g. Rowlands and Bancroft). Ryder is too languid to convey any real sense of suffering or anxiety. The women's stories are interesting, but lack depth. On the positive side, there is the nice use of flashbacks into different times and places; and I think this movie is just as much about how men relate to women as it is about women trying to deal with their men.

But overall, I was disappointed with the film. It is rather like a few intriguing patches being sewn into a pretty, but unimaginative quilt.

How to Make an American Quilt

For once, I have found a movie version of a book is BETTER than the book. I have the book, but the movie presentation makes the book a major disappointment. This movie was superbly cast with excellent performances. Our family has viewed this video repeatedly and still enjoys it. It was a great addition to our family's video library.

This Quilt of Intricately Woven Stories Warms the Soul

When Berkeley graduate student Finn decides to spend some time away from her live-in boyfriend, and moves in with her grandmother and great aunt for the summer, while finishing her master's thesis, she gets an important and heart-warming lesson about love and commitment. Finn's grandmother and great aunt are members of a quilting bee, and their group (whose members have known each other for a long time) decide that their latest project should have the theme of "where love resides." As the quilt is made, each woman remembers significant events in their lives which relate to love and the joy and pain that it brings. Each woman brings her own perspective to the nature of love, from Anna (who signs off on men completely after a bad experience)to her daughter Marianne (who cannot settle on just one man). Some of the women have been cheated on, some have done the cheating, while others just let love die.Along the way, Finn faces temptation in the form of Leon, a smoldering hunk who pursues her in spite of knowing that she is taken. At the same time, Finn must come to terms with her parents' failed marriage, as she decides whether to accept her boyfriend's marriage proposal.Inspite of the pains that the women have suffered in the name of love, the movie does not in any way bash love or marriage (which has recently become popular). It is a beautifully made film, and while it is definitely a "chick flick," it might also appeal to the more romantically minded guy.

Amazon editorial review is way off - this film is EXCELLENT.

*How to Make an American Quilt* has been in my Top 5 since the second I saw it in the theatre. Unfortunately, it seems to be grossly misunderstood by reviewers, who tend to be - and sorry for the generalization - male. It works more as a companion piece to the novel, as each fills in the blanks that the other left behind. What you have at the end is solid, heartfelt, and a true treasure within the "woman's film" genre.

Reminiciant of "Steel Magnolias" & "Ya-Ya Sisterhood"

OK, so I'm not really what I'd consider to be a Winona Rider fan, but I did like this movie (inspite of her). I think Drew Barrymore, or someone of that vein (not as dower as Rider) would have been better in this role honestly. The movie started out kinda slow, but as it went on and as the womens stories unfolded, I began to have a familiar feeling. I realized that this movie has a kinda of "Steel Magnolias" & "Ya-Ya Sisterhood" feeling about it: phenomenal ensemble cast (who more than outweighed the lackluster performance of the "lead"), diverse story lines, and I also like the fact that not every 'story' had a "happy ending" in the traditional way, but that every woman did come to a place where she felt comfortable experiencing her own version (good or bad) of 'where love lives' - be it in a daughter's heart, a lover's arms, a sister's forgiveness, a mother's admission of her faults, a stranger's kiss, or even in your fiancé's van.

This is the sweetest movie

Normally I love comedies, but How To Make an American Quilt was so beautiful. I especially loved the flashbacks, where you see the old women young, and learn their stories. Maybe the movie butchered the book, but I haven't read it and so for me the movie was enough on its own. This movie was really sweet.

Adultery, Indecision and Needlepoint

This adaptation by screenwriter Jane Anderson (novel by Whitney Otto) presents us with a character named Finn Dodd (Ryder), a 26-year old college student who has just gotten engaged to her long-time sweetheart Sam (Mulroney). She begins to realize the many changes that will come about because of her acceptance to his proposal and needs time to think and adjust. She decides to spend three months at her grandma Hy's house in Grasse, CA, which is the center of operations to a longtime quilting bee. During her tenure, she continues working on her master's thesis (a project of which she continuously changes her topic), all the while listening to the quilting bee's romantic horror stories as they craft Finn's wedding quilt.To sum it up, `How To Make An American Quilt' is the quintessential chick flick awash with many familiar faces including Maya Angelou. The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet stars as Anna, the queen of an eight-member sewing circle consisting of Glady Jo Cleary (Anne Bancroft), Hy Cleary (Ellen Burstyn), her daughter Marianna (Alfre Woodard), Em Reed (Jean Simmons), Constance Saunders (Kate Nelligan) and Sophia Darling (Lois Smith). Anna winds up in the Cleary household at 16 - pregnant, unmarried and helpless. She will dwell there until the birth of her child, meeting Hy and Glady Jo for the first time. Little does she know that these two young women will remain in her life for years afterward, their interest and skill in the art of quilting mounting over the years by Anna's guidance.There is also the story of Hy and Glady Jo themselves and their unspoken bitterness towards each other - we learn that Hy is the reason for Glady Jo's `self-expression' all over the walls of the laundry room. Then there is Sophia, an aspiring diver in her adolescence and later an abandoned mother of three; Em, wife to a histrionic artist, suffering his recurrent infidelity; Constance, a decent woman who endures the loss of her nearest and dearest, left with only her precious memories and Marianna, a lover of many but starved for the discovery of her soulmate.We find as the film goes on that many instances of infidelity exist in the characters' cluttered histories. Half the women in this movie commit adultery at some point and even Finn falls victim to temptation. Where as once I could not relate, I find myself agreeing with many of Finn's thoughts and opinions on marriage upon becoming engaged - this includes a question in the very beginning that Ryder's voiceover poses to the audience: `How do you merge into this thing called 'a couple', and still keep a little room for yourself? How do we even know we're only supposed to be with one person for the rest of our lives?' These kinds of questions number in the hundreds of intended couples as they come closer to walking the proverbial aisle. I know that I have had my own reservations about marriage ever since I got engaged and many of my questions will never have an answer - I must trust my heart.and my gut.Performances range in the areas of premium to mediocre. Who comes at the top of my list are screen veterans (and Academy Award winners, natch) Ellen Burstyn and Anne Bancroft. These two never cease to amaze me with how they can turn a character inside out and make it their own. Winona Ryder is so-so (as she is in most of her movies) as Finn but she does manage to touch a few nerves with her dark and luminous eyes - those pretty peepers are half of her dramatic capacity. Alfre Woodard is excellent, giving Marianna a carved edge but a soft core. Kate Nelligan is also wonderful but if you really wanna see her flex those acting chops, take a deep breath of Lila Wingo in `The Prince of Tides'. Dermot Mulroney always seems to play a nice guy that gets taken for granted (The Thing Called Love, My Best Friend's Wedding, Point Of No Return, etc.) and he does it again here - actis repeatus, you might say. Jean Simmons is a little disappointing as Em, the once beautiful and poised actress now only a shadow of herself. Maya Angelou does fine as Anna and some of Gen X's more popular faces make brief appearances in supporting roles (Claire Danes, Samantha Mathis, Jared Leto and Jonathan Schaech).This film is a fairly even script-to-screen production and will please many that seek a decent character study. Of course, you can't outdo a detailed and poetic novel or the insightful author who writes it. As long as novelists continue to exist and evolve, filmic adaptations cannot compare (though there are a few exceptions here and there, e.g. Dolores Claiborne). This is not to say that `How To Make An American Quilt' isn't enjoyable - it's just not on par with what can be translated through literature. For those who have read Otto's novel, it will earn your rigid criticism.

well told story

Though it seems apparent that this film could have gone in one of many directions, the director chose an enjoyable and fairly plausible one.Every one "cheats" in their marriage is pretty much the theme, but forgiveness completes the circle broken by infidelity.The story telling devices are simple---easy to follow and on some level "wonderous" to behold. If you are prone to a tear or two, get out a hankie. I just thought it was nicely done.

MARVELOUS!

This is a wonderful movie, that has that old homey flavor that somehow we all treasure in our hearts thru our entire lives. Watching it made me feel like I was going home to my grandma's again... The story delicately portrays the lives of several women and their stories thru several generations, weaving them all together by love and friendship, and showing that every decision, every turning point, every heartache, every stone encountered in the way of life is nothing but a blessing when passed as life lessons to our children. It takes a light heart and a sensitive mind to appreciate such a beautifullly written, directed, and acted movie. Winona Ryder excels (as always) and an all-star cast (Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Kate Capshaw) ensures the best ensemble ever. Precious!

How to Make a Relationship

This movie tells about men and women, and ties that bind them (us, I mean).I haven't read the novel, and I'm the kind of person who believes that the movie is not to be compared with any novel who based it, because they're using different media. So the way I see it, it's a good movie. We can easily understand it's messages and sympathy with the characters.Winona, by the way, appears to be a sweet girl who's having trouble following her 'advisors' ideas and wisdom. On the screen, she appears to be having quite difficulty matching these women's acts. We see her the way she is in 'Edward Scissorhand', or 'Reality Bites', or her other movies. Maybe because she's so sweet and pretty, and I was carried away with her big eyes. So I see her in this movie very usual and not special.The movie itself is beautiful and sweet. The casts are nice. We ended up wondering about our relationships and ourselves.A must see. Watch it with your close friends, spouse, or parents.

How to Make an American Quilt

I did not expect to enjoy this film as much as I did. It is about a group of women that have been working in a quilting circle together for many years. Each contributes a square to the quilt using the theme where love resides. As each member works on their individual square, we are taken back in history with them to see how events and choices have shaped their lives. This is a very intense and poignant story that will have a hankie moment or two.

Women pour out their soul stories to each other about their men.

Enjoyable discussion of the many facets of love and personal experiences warmly shared around the joint project of making a wedding quilt for one of the group's daughters. About 5-6 different stories told, each pretty good in itself- but makes the film like a collection of short stories as might be seen on cable tv. Compare with 'My Dinner with Andre" -if you liked that, you will like this.

Outstanding Cast!

I loved the story line in this movie, but it is the stellar cast that makes it worth watching over and over for me. When I am crafting or sewing I play it and it is like I am sitting right there with them all, sharing the incredible stories that make up their lives. I'd read the book prior to the movie's release and I liked it, but I must say that it was the wonderful women cast in these parts in the movie,that made the book come to life for me and made me love it! RLC

"For this particular quilt the theme is: where love resides"

How to Make an American Quilt is a nice comfortable movie, and unlike so many other films belonging to the 'coming of age' genre, it doesn't leave the viewer feeling emotionally drained. It is also unusual in that it attempts to breach the generation divide in its appeal; however its success in this respect is debatable.

Finn is 26 and, hoping for some peace and quiet in which to complete her Master's thesis, she heads for her great-aunt's house in small-town Grasse, California. She also needs time to mull over a marriage proposal from her boyfriend. This is an entrance cue for a smoulderingly handsome strawberry farmer (in an unnecessary plot complication) to hinder Finn's contemplations.

Great-aunt Glady-Joe lives with her sister, Hy, and their constant bickering is portrayed with sensitivity and humour by Anne Bancroft and Ellen Burstyn. The two sisters belong to a quilting group, who are in the process of creating Finn's wedding quilt - thematically titled 'where love resides'. This evokes something different for each of the women, all of whom - in artificially contrived tete-a-tetes - explain to Finn the story behind their contributions to the quilt. The viewer is transported to a time when these elderly women were young, and through them we (along with Finn) learn that times may change, but affairs of the heart will always be unpredictable.

These dalliances in the past are refreshingly piquant; unfortunately this is countered by the film's occasional heavy-handedness. The symbolic crow that leads the women to their true love has all the subtlety of a flashing neon sign. Ultimately however, even if it does perhaps tie up the loose ends too thoroughly, the film will leave the viewer pleasantly satisfied.

A "Feel Good" movie women can relate to

I have seen the movie and subsequently read the book, years ago. They are both distinct entities. The movie is a "feel-good" movie, with "satisfying" painful moments and happy ones.

It is a great challenge for movie directors to do justice to books made into movies, because they are completely two distinct art forms. Movies made from books generally are an entity of their own, which can be a total delight if done well. Not only can they enhance the book, they can totally bring it to life in a very memorable way. This one meets that test, as does (in my opinion) "Cold Mountain" and "Fried Green Tomatoes".


The most satisfying aspect of this movie for me is the recurrent theme of forgiveness. Each of the main characters faces a situation where forgiveness is desperately needed, either from someone else or themselves. That's what this movie is really all about for me. We all need forgiveness for our mistakes, which we don't always get. That's why it's nice to watch it happen for someone else. Thank you to the makers of this movie. It made me "feel good"!

A Thin Line Between Love and Quilting

How to Make an American Quilt is a movie filled with excellent actors, and a so so storyline. Finn Dodd is spending the summer with her grandmother, great aunt and their quilting bee supposedly to finish her master's thesis, but in reality to think things over after her boyfriend proposes.Once she arrives she finds the quilting bee is making her a quilt based on their own experiences with love. We then go through the ritual flashbacks to learn that most of these women dealt with some kind of love related trauma in their pasts. Finn is also tempted by the local hunk and his abs before she ultimately decides whether she intends to get married to the boyfriend she left back in Berkeley.Burstyn, Bancroft, Angelou and Nelligan all do a splendid job, and Alfre Woodard deserves special notice simply because her flashback is the one variance in the movie and she does a lot with a small part. Ryder is very appealing as well. The weakness of the movie is Ryder's men. Both are very underdeveloped. Mulroney is just bland, while Schaech's character is completely defined by his well sculptured body. It is never clear why Finn makes the choice she does, and this is the ultimate weakness of the movie, along with the fairly predictable flashbacks showing the various ways these women have been wronged by men. However, the quilts shown throughout the film are just beautiful.

share it with your girlfriends

This is a lovely movie about women from different generations and their stories. My favorite part is that they come together to make a wedding quilt and that is how we learn most of their life stories.

Adultery, Indecision and Needlepoint (3.5 stars)

This adaptation by screenwriter Jane Anderson (novel by Whitney Otto) presents us with a character named Finn Dodd (Ryder), a 26-year old college student who has just gotten engaged to her long-time sweetheart Sam (Mulroney). She begins to realize the many changes that will come about because of her acceptance to his proposal and needs time to think and adjust. She decides to spend three months at her grandma Hy's house in Grasse, CA, which is the center of operations to a longtime quilting bee. During her tenure, she continues working on her master's thesis (a project of which she continuously changes her topic), all the while listening to the quilting bee's romantic horror stories as they craft Finn's wedding quilt.

To sum it up, "How To Make An American Quilt" is the quintessential chick flick awash with many familiar faces including Maya Angelou. The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet stars as Anna, the queen of an eight-member sewing circle consisting of Glady Jo Cleary (Anne Bancroft), Hy Cleary (Ellen Burstyn), her daughter Marianna (Alfre Woodard), Em Reed (Jean Simmons), Constance Saunders (Kate Nelligan) and Sophia Darling (Lois Smith). Anna winds up in the Cleary household at 16 - pregnant, unmarried and helpless. She will dwell there until the birth of her child, meeting Hy and Glady Jo for the first time. Little does she know that these two young women will remain in her life for years afterward, their interest and skill in the art of quilting mounting over the years by Anna's guidance.

There is also the story of Hy and Glady Jo themselves and their unspoken bitterness towards each other - we learn that Hy is the reason for Glady Jo's "self-expression" all over the walls of the laundry room. Then there is Sophia, an aspiring diver in her adolescence and later an abandoned mother of three; Em, wife to a histrionic artist, suffering his recurrent infidelity; Constance, a decent woman who endures the loss of her nearest and dearest, left with only her precious memories and Marianna, a lover of many but starved for the discovery of her soulmate.

We find as the film goes on that many instances of infidelity exist in the characters' cluttered histories. Half the women in this movie commit adultery at some point and even Finn falls victim to temptation. Where as once I could not relate, I find myself agreeing with many of Finn's thoughts and opinions on marriage upon becoming engaged - this includes a question in the very beginning that Ryder's voiceover poses to the audience: "How do you merge into this thing called `a couple', and still keep a little room for yourself? How do we even know we're only supposed to be with one person for the rest of our lives?" These kinds of questions number in the hundreds of intended couples as they come closer to walking the proverbial aisle. I know that I have had my own reservations about marriage ever since I got engaged and many of my questions will never have an answer - I must trust my heart...and my gut.

Performances range in the areas of premium to mediocre. Who comes at the top of my list are screen veterans (and Academy Award winners, natch) Ellen Burstyn and Anne Bancroft. These two never cease to amaze me with how they can turn a character inside out and make it their own. Winona Ryder is so-so (as she is in most of her movies) as Finn but she does manage to touch a few nerves with her dark and luminous eyes - those pretty peepers are half of her dramatic capacity. Alfre Woodard is excellent, giving Marianna a carved edge but a soft core. Kate Nelligan is also wonderful but if you really wanna see her flex those acting chops, take a deep breath of Lila Wingo in "The Prince of Tides". Dermot Mulroney always seems to play a nice guy that gets taken for granted (The Thing Called Love, My Best Friend's Wedding, Point Of No Return, etc.) and he does it again here - actis repeatus, you might say. Jean Simmons is a little disappointing as Em, the once beautiful and poised actress now only a shadow of herself. Maya Angelou does fine as Anna and some of Gen X's more popular faces make brief appearances in supporting roles (Claire Danes, Samantha Mathis, Jared Leto and Jonathan Schaech).

This film is a fairly even script-to-screen production and will please many that seek a decent character study. Of course, you can't outdo a detailed and poetic novel or the insightful author who writes it. As long as novelists continue to exist and evolve, filmic adaptations cannot compare (though there are a few exceptions here and there, e.g. Dolores Claiborne). This is not to say that "How To Make An American Quilt" isn't enjoyable - it's just not on par with what can be translated through literature. For those who have read Otto's novel, it will earn your rigid criticism.

Very moving

A very moving, beautifully-crafted film. As I have not read the book, I am unable to compare the two. But the movie is enough: the acting is wonderful, although we get only snippets of each actress/actor. The message is wonderful, and the soundtrack is equally touching. I would recommend this to anyone in love, or making a decision about love. Inspiration is abundant in this film about a young woman about to get married and in the process of building a house with her fiance. As she takes the summer away from him to write a thesis and stay with her Grandmother and Great Aunt, she finds them in the middle of making a quilt for her wedding. She also finds a very attractive young man, tempting her to cheat. What follows are stories told by and about each of the women in the quilting circle. The young women discovers that love is not perfect, and that you must take advantage of what you have, and that there is beauty in the known.

Authentic-feeling story of keeping it real

The delight of the movie lies in the several stories, including the focal story of Finn herself. And what I'm struck by is how the quilt is a perfect metaphor for human life as it makes its way through the generations, particularly how women serve as the thread and fabric of life. First, think of the arts involving sewing or threading —which you can look at as "connecting"—and how they're almost universally performed by women. (You can tell me the human genome has nothing to say about gender behavior, and you can also tell me pigs can fly.)...For my complete review of this movie and for other movie and book reviews, please visit my site TheCoffeeCoaster.com.Brian Wright Copyright 2008