WINNIE
US, 1988, 96 minutes, Colour.
Meredith Baxter Birney, David Morse.
Directed by John Korty.
Winnie is a moving star vehicle for Meredith Baxter Birney, who acts as executive producer. The film was directed by John Korty, whose films (mainly telemovies) range from River Run to The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pitman. He brings a compassion to this story of a young girl put into an institution in 1941 and who has stayed there for 30 years. Mentally retarded (though, seemingly, slightly) she has found her home in the institution, despite its strict regulations and the harshness of some of the staff. However, a visit from her sister gives her more hope - which is dashed when the sister dies of cancer. In the meantime, in the home, she befriends Tom (David Morse) and begins to write down her stories. She is also befriended by a sympathetic member of the staff played by Barbara Barrie. Meredith Baxter Birney is persuasive as Winnie and offers insight into the difficulties as well as the hopes and joys of a person in her situation.
1.A compassionate telemovie? Enlightening the home audience about the situation of those with mental disabilities? Enlightening as to institutions, the inmates' reliance on the security of the institution, the harshness of the regimes?
2.The period: the early '40s, the '70s? The atmosphere of the institution? Of the `outside'? The musical score?
3.The title and its focus on Winnie herself? The qualities of Meredith Baxter Birney's performance?
4.The prologue and 1941, Winnie being brought to the institution and left there? The death of her parents? Her sisters? Her memories? The inability of her foster parents to cope and having to put her in the institution?
5.Winnie 30 years later, her personality, vitality? The idiosyncrasies? Physical appearance, deformities? Her clothing, manner of speaking? Her relationship with the others in the dormitory, especially the black woman who wept? Her friendships? Her friendship with Tom, sharing with him? Their discussions, their running away? The experience in the town, their being taken advantage of, buying things in the shop, presents, Winnie and her toaster? Sleeping in the car, the police, their being returned to the institution? The quality of her love for Tom?
6.Winnie and the visit from Gladys? The bonds between the two, the memories, the love shared? The awkwardness and embarrassment of Gladys's husband and his wanting to avoid the situation? Blowing the horn of the car and wanting to leave? Gladys not coming back? The return with the other sister? Gladys's illness and her not knowing? The farewell to Winnie? Gladys's death, Winnie not being told, the other sister coming back, Winnie's grief - and not being able to go to the funeral?
7.Winnie and her story-writing? Her love of books? Children's books? Writing down her own stories? The vindictive member of the staff and her destroying Winnie's book? The encouragement of the sympathetic member of the staff, the friendship, the motherly attitude and Winnie's response? Encouraging her to write? The quality of her stories?
8.The woman with cerebral palsy and her weeping, her sympathetic mother? Winnie and her friendship, making her laugh? The bonds between them? Visiting the home, the mother giving Winnie the blue dress?
9.Winnie and the preparation to go to the outside? The support of the member of the staff, her getting ready and her farewells? The house, her own room? The effect of going to the outside world after three decades? The difficulty in adjusting and coping? The lift and the man and his sexual advances and her bewilderment? Her going to the library, reading the books, having her own card? The exhilaration of life on the outside - and going for meals? Her loneliness, missing the security of the institution, her friends? Her return? Her future?
10.Sympathetic portrait of a woman? Her friendships (especially for the cerebral palsy woman, making her laugh, visiting her in hospital)? With her mother? With the other members of the institution? Winnie as a life-giving character?
