ROCK-N-ROLL ACTOR: FALLING FROM GRACE, FREEJACK, THE LINGUINI INCIDENT
Ever since Elvis Presley appeared in LOVE ME TENDER in 1956, rock stars have been trying second careers as actors, with mixed results. Of course, rock stars haven't been the first singers to try and act. What's different is because of the ephemeral nature of rock music, its singers are often put into quick-hit situations, where singers of old were asked to build their image first. So instead of movies, you got vehicles (most of Elvis' stuff) or vehicles that, by luck, became movies (the Beatles movies). However, as rock-n-roll has changed, there have also been some singers who have become more mature and astute, and attempted to take serious roles, instead of just cashing in on their singing fame. John Mellecamp, Mick Jagger, and David Bowie are rock legends who took chances with their films - FALLING FROM GRACE, Geoff Murphy's FREEJACK, and Richard Shepherd's THE LINGUINI INCIDENT, respectively - and while not all of them are successful (FREEJACK is awful), they do represent creative risks, and all three acquit themselves as actors.
For FALLING FROM GRACE, Mellencamp also directed, and he plays a popular country singer. That, of course, makes it sound like a cash-in job (as it was when George Strait tried his hand at acting in PURE COUNTRY later that year). But Mellencamp proves to be too smart for that. He collaborated with writer Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove), set the movie in his home state of Indiana, and doesn't perform one song. Instead, he's made a simple but affecting family drama.
The drama comes from the famous saying by author Thomas Wolfe - "you can't go home again." Bud Parks (Mellencamp) certainly finds that out the hard way. He comes back to his Indiana hometown (the film was shot in Seymour, Mellencamp's actual hometown) with his wife/manager Alice (Mariel Hemingway) to celebrate the birthday of his grandfather (Dub Taylor), and take a break from his career to lead a normal life. Instead, he finds himself taking up with P.J. (Kay Lenz), his former high school sweetheart. What makes that interesting is P.J. married Bud's brother Parker (Brent Huff) when she couldn't get Bud. Plus, she's sleeping with Bud and Parker's father Speck (Claude Akins). Add to that the fact that Speck has always resented Bud's success and you have a family soap opera on your hands.
Except it isn't. For starters, since Mellencamp is from Indiana, and McMurtry from a small town in Texas, they know their territory. They neither sentimentalize the townspeople nor condescend to them by looking at them as rubes. The locals certainly are respectful of Bud for his success, but if they aren't quite as resentful as Speck is, they also don't act entirely pleased. And while Mellencamp didn't write the script, and Bud Parks isn't Mellencamp, there are enough details from his life to make it semi-autobiographical, especially his close relationship with the grandfather (Mellencamp actually wrote the original script, which McMurtry completely rewrote, using some of the same characters but putting in a different story). Finally, while the plot may sound like it could be soap opera, Mellencamp and McMurtry keep it honest and real throughout.
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