THE SPITFIRE GRILL
US, 1996, 117 minutes, Colour.
Alison Elliot, Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton, Kieran Mulroney, Gaillard Sartain.
Directed by Lee David Zlotoff.
While in goal on a charge of manslaughter, Percy Talbott works for the Maine tourist authority, a member of its phone advice service. On release, she decides to travel to one of the towns that attracted her, Gilead.
She is befriended by Hannah who runs the local diner, the Spitfire Grill. Gilead itself is experiencing an economic downturn and Hannah is trying to sell the grill. Percy enjoys working there and becomes friendly with Joe to whom she reveals her past. However, she is regarded with suspicion by Hannah's nephew, Nahum.
Nahum makes his wife, Shelby, whom he continually belittles in public and private, help out at the grill. Shelby gains a sense of achievement as well as an experiencing friendship with Percy. Percy hears about a diner in another town that is to be raffled. She suggests that Hannah do the same. The raffle is very successful.
Increasingly antagonistic towards Percy, Nahum hides the money from the entry fees in a sack of food, one of many that Percy leaves out for a wild man in the hills. It emerges that he is Eli, Hannah's son, whom everyone thought had gone to Vietnam.
A manhunt for Eli follows. When Percy goes to warn Eli, she has an accident and drowns. Nahum confesses his guilt at her funeral. Later a young woman with a child arrives, the new owner of the grill.
The Spitfure Grill is a moving experience, a story of generations of women. The title refers to a diner, a reminder of the Whistle Stop cafe with its fried green tomatoes.
Alison Eliot is persuasive as a young woman released from gaol who gets a job helping the elderly Ellen Burstyn at the Grill. Her nephew, played by Will Patton, is suspicious, especially when his wife whom he continually belittles finds friendship helping out at the Grill. Marcia Gay Harden gives a surprisingly effective performance.
For a while, the movie seems to be signalling plot developments well ahead - romance, a raffle to find a new owner for the Grill, a Vietnam veteran who has disappeared. However, the resolution and ending are not quite what we might expect. We are left in a more thoughtful frame of mind about the characters and themes.
The people of Gilead, Maine, are experiencing recession. The opportunities of the past are vanishing. They experience some sense of continuity, community and hope at the Grill. Hannah provides for their needs. When Percy joins Hannah she brings new spirit to the diner and to the customers. She is a catalyst for good. This can be seen in the transformation of Shelby and her gaining self-esteem while working in the grill with Percy and in the achievement of setting up the raffle. Percy, in her way, is something of a Christ-figure in Gilead.
The movie received financial support from the Catholic congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. It was a success at the Sundance Film Festival and consequently received world-wide release.
1. A humane story, of redemption? The focus on women characters?
2. An American story, the state of Maine, the town of Gilead, small, during a recession? Homes, the Grill? The mountains and the hermit dwelling? The fair, the raffle? The atmosphere of the town? The musical score?
3. Percy as a good young woman. Her telling Joe her story and the revelation of how she had been victimised by her stepfather and by the system. Her tourist work in jail and her decision to come to Gilead. The experience of jail, her getting out, starting again, coming to Gilead? Her age, experience, good nature?
4. Hannah and her welcome. Hannah, her age, her experience, running the diner? The story of her son, Vietnam, considered lost?
5. Percy at work at the grill and meeting and influencing people.
6. Shelby and the response to friendship.
7. Other customers, their being suspicious of Percy and her presence? The setting up of the raffle for the grill?
8. Nahum, his relationship with Hannah, at the grill, his suspicions? His attitude towards Hannah? His attitude towards his wife, being hard on Shelby?
9. Shelby, her self-image, her relationship with Nathan? Friendship with Shelby, shall be helping her at the grill, affirmation?
10. The role of the sheriff in the town?
11. Go, young, attracted to Percy? Inviting the scientist to the town? The theories about the trees, the cure for arthritis? Percy confiding in Joe?
12. Eli, the background of the Vietnam war, shellshocked, the return, hiding as a hermit, in the mountains? Percy and her helping him with food?
13. Nahum's hostility and his hiding the money in the sack of food. Percy's helping Eli with the food. Going to warn him about the search. Her giving her life as she drowned. The next
young woman coming to Gilead and owning the grill.
