Bolstered by Alison Elliott's marvelous lead performance - and by several excellent supporting performances - "The Spitfire Grill" is a warm, enjoyable comedy-drama most of the way. Sadly, it falls apart in the end, with a violent climax and a preachy denoue-ment.
But before that, there is much to admire, and it's easy to see why this picture won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival this past January. (Though it's not as easy to see why it sparked a bidding war among distribution agencies; the box-office prospects are modest at best.)
The story has a young woman named Percy (Elliott) being released from a Maine prison and relocating to the nearby small town of Gilead, which seems to have been passed over by progress and time (if not by redemptive symbolism).
Percy gets a job in a local diner called the Spitfire Grill, working for the crusty owner, Hannah (Ellen Burstyn, quite believable in "older" makeup). Percy tries to warm up to Hannah - no easy task - and makes friends with browbeaten housewife Shelby (Marcia Gay Harden), whose husband Nahum (Will Patton) is Hannah's arrogant, chauvinistic nephew.
When Hannah is laid up with an injury, she encourages Percy to run the diner, but Nahum insists his wife come in to help. Since cooking isn't one of Percy's primary skills, Shelby is a welcome addition, and gradually Percy, Hannah and Shelby become a formidable team.
Prior to that, of course, the townfolk are all quite suspicious - though none is as nasty as Nahum. And the film builds some suspense before revealing the reasons that Percy landed in prison on a manslaughter charge at such a young age.
Meanwhile, Hannah has her own dark secret, which is linked to the disappearance of her son during the Vietnam War. And she and Percy will soon share a secret about strange occurrences that happen in the nearby woods.
The latter isn't really too hard to figure out - especially if you've seen the John Lithgow movie "Distant Thunder."
Better than any of this is the plotline that has Percy suggesting a way to help Hannah sell her restaurant - an essay contest involving $100 bids.
All of this comes together pretty well under the guiding hand of writer-director Lee David Zlotoff (a producer of such television shows as "Remington Steele" and "MacGyver"). The characters are rich and engaging, the setting is Smalltown, U.S.A., Hollywood-style, but quite appealing (and beautifully photographed), and most of the story maintains interest, balancing the serious and humorous story elements quite well. But there are places where the symbolism gets a bit heavy, and the hokum is laid on rather thickly. Especially during the final quarter.
And trying to tack an action-packed ending onto this picture is a calculated error, almost as bad as having Patton's overbearing character make an all too rapid - and complete - change of heart.
But the performances and chemistry provided by Burstyn, Harden and especially Elliott make it possible to overlook plot problems and just go with it.
As a side note, the folks at Castle Rock bought this film at Sundance for $10 million - a record for the festival's annual sea of negotiations. And though there was some controversy when it was discovered that the film was financed by an order of Roman Catholic priests, there is nothing on the screen that would give that away.
"The Spitfire Grill" is rated PG-13, but it could be a PG, for violence and profanity.