I'll save you some time. Gents, feel free to skip this movie. Based off the Whitney Otto novel, How to Make an American Quilt shows the audience a confused woman and the journey she takes to find herself as she talks to the women in her knitting group. If you like those kinds of "girl power" movies like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood or Fried Green Tomatoes, you'll definitely want to watch this one.I don't happen to like those kinds of movies, so despite the large cast—Winona Ryder, Afre Woodard, Jean Simmons, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Maya Angelou, and Kate Nelligan—I didn't like this movie. Many women will find this movie touching and heartwarming, but it did nothing for me. The overriding theme is that every woman is a patchwork product of the other women in her life, so when we choose our path of love, it's not really because we're choosing it; it's because all the other women's experiences in love have taught us and shaped us. I've never been a huge fan of estrogen-fest films, but if you like them, rent this one with your girlfriends.

Women's own film about love and relationships, commitment and infidelity. Jane Anderson's script (from Whitney Otto's novel) tells of student Finn's sumer holiday with her grandmother and great Aunt, where she carefully considers boyfriend Sam's marriage proposal. Here she learns of the lives and loves of the members of the quilting bee that her grandma is part of.Jocelyn Moorhouse takes this project, a personal passion, to heart. She directs with purpose, giving the film a her own special touch. "American Quilt" meanders along as it tells of each woman's past, while Moorhouse ties it all up with a common theme. The pic only loses its way at the end with a dreadfully concocted, sentimental finale.An ensemble cast deliver some enjoyable performances, led by the fresh, attractive Winona Ryder, and supported by Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons, Samantha Mathis, Lois Smith, Maya Angelou, Kate Capshaw, Melinda Dillon, Dermot Mulroney, Rip Torn, Derrick O'Connor and Loren Dean. Quite an assembly.Aussie director Moorhouse is backed up by compatriot editor Jill Bilcock ("Evil Angels"), who wields the knife astutely, while Janusz Kaminski ("Schindler's List") wields the camera with equal effect. Thomas Newman compliments the film with a pleasing score.Anderson and Moorhouse have focused the pic on the many choices women face, and the disappointments they have in relationships and matters of love. They fail to give the male players any depth, leaving them rather two dimensional. Story poses the question : How do we ever know if we've met the one person we should spend the rest of our lives with, or if we're ever meant to be with just one person at all? An answer though, is not provided, perhaps because, as this film seems to suggest, there is no one answer.Saturday, August 24, 1996 - Waverley Pinewood Cinema

I would not normally choose to watch this type of movie, but it was the only thing on TV that was in English. Having said that, there was enough to keep me interested.Movies based on books must make trade-offs in terms of what stays and what goes. 'Quilt' couldn't make up its mind what to cut, so there is a bit of everything. I felt the movie was on fast forward for the entire time.The message was also a bit muddled. All men are schmucks? All women are schmucks? (but just more discreet about it). Marriage is crap? Marriage is about love? (i.e. the "where love reside" them of the quilt.At the end of the day, I expect a movie such as this to tell a good story. Stories, like real life, don't necessarily have clear messages. So putting all the artistic crap aside, this movie had a nice little story, and it was a decent way to spend a few hours.

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.