The Straight Story is easily David Lynch’s most accessible movie. As a G-rated, Disney film, it is about as far from the rest of his oeuvre as he could have found himself. It is a grand yarn about a man named Alvin Straight (Richard Farnsworth), whose estranged brother, Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton), has had a bad stroke and Alvin wants to travel the 240 miles from his home in Iowa to Wisconsin to visit Lyle.
Buy Room to Dream paperbackAlvin lives with one of his daughters, Rose (Sissy Spacek), who is dealing with unnamed mental issues and cannot take Alvin to see Lyle. Unfortunately for Alvin, his hips and eyes are too far gone for him to get a driver’s license, he doesn’t like buses, and he is stubborn as a mule. He decides to build a small trailer to sleep in and hitch it to his small riding lawnmower. His goal, to hug the shoulder of the road crossing America’s heartland in the hopes of reaching Lyle before it is too late to make amends.
The heart of The Straight Story are the people Alvin meets on the road. There is the young, pregnant hitchhiker who needs a reminder of the importance of family. A huge group of cyclists pass Alvin on the road and cheer him on as he makes his way into their camp for the night. One of the cyclists asks Alvin what’s the hardest part of being old: “That you can remember what it was like to be young,” Alvin says. The lawnmower’s brakes give out on a big hill and he is stuck staying with the nicest darn family you’ll ever meet. They let Alvin camp on the front lawn while he waits for his next Social Security check to catch up with him so he can fix his brakes.
There is a hilariously fun moment when he challenges two mechanics (John Farley and Kevin Farley – Chris Farley’s brothers) on every detail of his receipt, guilting them into cutting more and more from the final sale. Just across the Wisconsin border, Alvin meets a Catholic priest who knows Lyle and about Lyle’s stroke. Alvin is hopeful there is still time to rekindle their relationship.
Considering that David Lynch is the mastermind behind sometimes confounding works of art like Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, Eraserhead, and Mulholland Drive, it is surprising to find that The Straight Story is exactly what it claims to be: a straight story. In fact, the most surreal moment in the movie is the first scene – the unveiling of the Disney logo. David Lynch’s The Straight Story is for everybody who likes a good yarn with a great cast. Highly recommended.
