Which is a shame considering there was so much to like. Laura Dern's performance is astonishing as the Rose of the title who has a shady past and comes to live with a family headed up by Robert Duvall and Diane Lane (her real life mother) who gives a wonderful performance also.
The story is a cobweb, if story it is, I haven't read the novel,and the plot is character driven all the way.
The sexual content is handled sensitively and the fact that Rose is a 'nymphomaniac' of the era - i.e. she loves sex - is understood and tolerated by the family.
The eldest child, Buddy, is played by Lukas Haas who has many good performances to his credit - and has never turned down a movie role since he was five - who has an evil streak according to his mother but keeps certain secrets about Rose along with his father who also has secrets.
An amazingly tolerant and lovable family headed by a father with integrity - which was a bit of a stumble for me as Robert Duvall's incessant smirking does not translate as such to me. I find it irksome - and confusing. I would have preferred a different actor in that part a la Leslie Howard from the forties.
The sepia cinematography was breathtaking and the street scenes amazing as were the two actors who played the younger children.
The wraparound of the story didn't work at all. Rose deserved more that a verbal dismissal at the end. And the mother vanished inexplicably. Now there was a character. Too bad the viewer wasn't respected a little more.
6 out of 10 for all that.
