Percy (Alison Elliott), upon being released from prison, goes to the small town of Gillead, to find a place where she can start over again. She is taken in by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), to help out at her place, the Spitfire Grill. Percy brings change to the small town, stirring resentment and fear in some, and growth in others.Roger Ebert wrote, "Watching this plot unfold, I was remembering last week's 'Heavy,' which also premiered at Sundance; its cafe was run by an older woman (Shelley Winters), and had a veteran waitress (Deborah Harry) and a young waitress (Liv Tyler), and had a regular customer whose name was Leo, not Joe, although he was played by Joe Grifasi. Also echoing in the caverns of my memory were several other movies about stalwart women running cafes and striding above the local gossip: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, Fried Green Tomatoes, Staying Together and of course Bagdad Cafe." Indeed, something about this film felt derivative or cheap, like it belonged on the Lifetime network and not as a film championed by the fine folks at Sundance. Some say this is a forgotten sleeper hit, and I disagree. Others say the score was overlooked, and that I will agree with. James Horner is one of the bigger names out there, and this effort is no exception.

Newly released prisoner Percy (Alison Elliott) comes to the small town of Gillead, Maine. She was imprisoned 5 years for manslaughter. Sheriff Walsh directs her to the Spitfire Grill. Elderly owner Hannah Ferguson (Ellen Burstyn) recently lost her waitress. She's given a job and a place to live. Hannah's nephew Nahum Goddard (Will Patton) is suspicious. Joe Sperling takes a liking to the newcomer. After Hannah suffers a bad fall, Percy and Nahum's kind-hearted wife Shelby (Marcia Gay Harden) start running the grill. There's a mysterious local hermit and a tree scientist. Percy organizes an essay contest with an entry fee to sell the grill with the help of her former prison mates. Hannah gets tired of the townfolks' sarcasm and gives them the essays to read.The drama and the characters are done with a very light touch. I like the characters but it's too easy going. There is no tension until the last act. Alison Elliott is pretty and does a good job. I think Joe needs to be a bigger character played by a more charismatic actor. It gets a bit hokey. The townfolks are too monotone. It tries too hard to be fanciful or fails to be fanciful enough. It also needs to advance Percy's character more in the first half. Nahum and Shelby have a better character arc. This is an interesting story about tolerance and salvation but it's done without any tension rising to a super high soaring melodramatic ending. The tearjerker ending feels too manipulative.

This is the kind of totally misogynistic movie that does such an excellent job of masquerading as a movie about female empowerment that it fools all but the most discerning types.There would be nothing wrong with that, except that it lulls us all into a false state of comfort. Police will always be kind, gentle folk, escaped convicts will always be 'really good' at heart, and a woman can be rescued from the worst types of spiritual and emotional pain by the 'power of the penis'. If only, right?Wrong. The world is not like that. In this world we all live in, police rape young homeless woman wandering around on their own as often as they help them out. Women who have been convicted of felonies rarely get second chances, regardless of how generous or good-hearted they happen to be. People are shaped by their circumstances and rarely manage to "rise above" them, instead dragging everyone else down with them often as not. There are no second chances.Nor should there be. Women who murder ought not to be let off the hook from the ramifications of their actions for "good behavior." Policemen ought not do the job of the non-government organizations and social programs which do not exist in the South for all intents and purposes.We ought not be able to work or charm our way out of being who we are.Everyone deserves the opportunity to start again, but part of that process MUST involve some acknowledgment of why things went so badly wrong in the first place. Teaching young girls that all they have to do to improve their lives is to trust the people around them unconditionally to help them out of any scrape they get into is morally bankrupt. Movies like this one do a terrible job of preparing young girls for the world they will actually be entering upon adulthood.It does a terrible job of describing the world they exist in now.We need to learn how to be less sweet and giving, rather than more so.Women are taught to be caring at the cost of everything we love about our lives and ourselves. Because we are so open-hearted, we are easily taken advantage of in our naivete. We need movie heroines who encourage us to be MORE wary, more suspicious of who we place our trust in, rather than less. We need heroines willing to stand on their own two feet and to work to accomplish their own dreams, rather than to fight for the dreams of those around them without a thought for themselves.In real life, this kind of goodness is boring...it is scrappiness, it is the willingness to stand one's ground and to fight for one's right to exist at all costs, that makes a life entertaining to watch and live.Instead, what this movie does is make us resent the people around us for achieving less than the perfection that the main characters of this movie achieve. We also hate ourselves for being less than wholly sweet.No man will ever solve all a woman's problems for her. No woman can work her way into redemption by serving the people around her rather than serving herself. There is no opportunity for healing without pride.No one can work themselves out of a pit of despair without honesty.May I live to see the day when movies all represent heroines of reality, rather than of male fantasies of what a 'real woman' should be.

This movie got pretty bad reviews from the Hollywood Hype-mongers. I suppose because it didn't have a lot of flash. All it had was a well-written original story and superb acting with real characters. Anyone who has ever spent time in a small town can identify with nearly all the characters. I could practically name them all in the town I grew up in. I'm sure the only people who would NOT enjoy this movie are the ones who grew up in Hollywood and believe everyone is like them. If thats not you, rent this movie for a truly enjoyable evening. But you might want to bring tissues. It's a very warm and often funny movie, but it's also very sad in some places. Will Patton is incredible and I honestly don't understand why Alison Elliott hasn't been used more than she has since this movie. Ellen Burstyn was glorious as ever :)