Movie Review – Steel Magnolias

Steel Magnolias (1989)
Written by Robert Harling
Directed by Herbert Ross

The stage play-to-screen adaptation is fascinating to me. Works produced initially in the theater are restricted by money & the physical space. The original stage production of Steel Magnolias took place entirely in Truvy’s beauty salon, but we expect more movement and locations for a film. I’ve never seen a production of the play, but I felt I could still see the seams where new things were sewn on, and that wasn’t bad. It highlights how much more narratively developed the women are in this story than the male characters who don’t appear in the play. The film is much stronger when the story focuses on the relationships between the women. It falters a lot when it shifts focus to their interactions with the men.

Set in Chinquapin Parish in northwestern Louisiana, Steel Magnolias follows a handful of years in the lives of six women of varying ages. M’lynn (Sally Field) is busy preparing for her daughter Shelby’s (Julia Roberts) wedding. This is also the same day newcomer Annelle (Daryl Hannah) gets a job doing hair at Truvy’s place (Dolly Parton). The former mayor’s widow, Clairee (Olympia Dukakis), is a close friend of M’Lynn’s and is often around. Then there’s the forever-grumpy Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine), who is a good person despite her rough exterior. The women are there for each other in the happy and tragic times, too. 

While the play and script were both penned by Herbert Ross, a genuine Southern who based them on his experiences in the region, the film is ultimately the Hollywood version of the Southern United States. Melodrama was chosen over realism, but several of the performances worked to ground things. Chief among those is Sally Field, who carries this film on her back. That doesn’t mean the other performers are bad; it’s just that Field is probably the most committed to her role among them, and she has a part that affords her some pathos. It is hard to make it through her big final speech as she talks about the pain she knows she’s going to endure for many years to come. She expresses genuine suffering and anger towards God that any reasonable person would in such a moment.

My favorite performances were Dukakis and MacClaine, especially when they were playing off each other in a scene. Both women had/have extensive backgrounds in theater and always showed how they could become lost in the role. Compare this role to Dukakis’s part in the previous year’s Moonstruck. Two very different characters, but both feel authentic and complex. The same can be said about MacLaine’s numerous parts. She can just as easily play someone as abrasive as Ouiser while nailing her part in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. The range these women have is exceptional. It feels that many contemporary talents in Hollywood, regardless of gender, are not spending much time in live theater. Thus, you can feel the unease in fully exploring a role beyond the page. I don’t think someone who mainly does television will often transition into a fantastic film actor. The best have always come from the theater.

Their strength does have the side effect of highlighting other cast members’ not-so-great acting. Dolly Parton is a lovely person, but I would never say she is an exemplary actor. She’s far from the worst actor I’ve ever seen, but when she’s side-by-side with Shirley MacLaine, you can see how Parton feels like someone acting. MacLaine makes us forget that and becomes Ouiser. I felt the same about Parton when she was playing against Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. She’s a fantastic singer but an okay actor.

I have never been a fan of Julia Roberts, but I certainly see the charm. However, I don’t think she’s a terribly fantastic actor either. Part of that is Shelby’s role, which is rather challenging to play. Her fate is telegraphed fairly early on for any person familiar with melodrama. When a character coughs or is revealed to have a severe medical condition early in the story, you can bet that person will die by the third act. Chekov’s cough? Significant swaths of Shelby’s life get rushed over as the story jumps months and years. For the purpose of a film, we needed to see more of that. Her relationship with Jackson, her husband, is so nebulous. 

When she reveals she’s pregnant, something the film has previously emphasized is not good with her condition, we never hear any of what Jackson has to say. I think that’s important because he’s aware of her health. I wondered if he reacted positively or negatively when she told him she was pregnant. We see him in scenes, but I wanted a better understanding of their relationship. M’Lynn is adamant that her daughter not get pregnant, so I wanted to know if Jackson was on the same page or if there was conflict between them.

That’s essentially what I mean about the male characters in the story. They are there, but I don’t really get why. I don’t feel they added anything to the story, so I wonder if the play could have been adapted, and you just left them out of it entirely? You could still get around the stage-y-ness by shooting on location and having lots of extras in the wedding or football game, etc. The husbands could be there, but just in non-speaking roles. The dialogue in the play clearly has the women expositing about them while the film takes those bits and turns them into scenes. The best of them was probably Ouiser and Drum’s (Tom Skerritt) brief interaction when she came over to complain about the noise. I was particularly underwhelmed with Sam Shepherd as Parton’s husband. Just not much there, so I don’t understand why you would cast someone of his caliber.

The most glaring problem with Steel Magnolias is its lack of focus on anyone who isn’t white. There’s some expected, but still stupid, glorification of the Confederacy happening in the background of the wedding reception. Some of the young male guests are running around in recreations of the gray uniforms worn by the pro-slavery forces. We see Black women as food preparations are happening in M’Lynn’s kitchen. None of them gets a line or is even directly acknowledged as a person by their employer. 

A Black woman’s perspective on what these women talk about would have added a lot to the film. Or a Latinx woman. Or even a Vietnamese woman, as many refugees settled in the Delta region. As the film takes place in Louisiana, we expect a more diverse cast…well, I guess not in 1989. Ouiser also feels like she’s coded as a lesbian. She’s awkwardly paired with a man for comic relief, but everything about how MacLaine plays the character doesn’t tell me this is someone who enjoys the company of men. I also think the other women beat up on her a little too much, especially at the end. Damn, leave Ouiser alone, ladies!

Steel Magnolias is a perfectly fine melodrama. It feels like it grew directly out of the success of earlier films like Terms of Endearment and has helped ensure the occasional female-led ensemble movie that comes out every year or so. If it hadn’t been for the strength of this cast, I don’t think the script would have propelled the film to the heights it has reached. This is an excellent reminder that so many of our best performances come from older actors who have stage experience. I can say that I have rarely been disappointed by a performer with those skills.