This film, from Our Winona's Heathers era, tells the story of Jerry Lee Lewis' (Dennis Quaid) marriage to his thirteen-year old cousin. Our Winona plays said cousin, Myra Brown. Displaying an amazing range of emotions from the naive smitten teenager, to the stunned bride, to the wealthy young wife who does not know what to do about all the media attention, we see Ryder in just the kind of role she was meant for. She and Quaid have a very natural chemistry as an unlikely couple who are both outraged by the media's attention to their marriage. The couple is so sympathetic, in fact, that viewers may find themselves at times confused about what to make of the media frenzy.
Watching this movie I wanted to turn away when I saw grown man Dennis Quaid bedding Ryder (who, although she was about 18 when the film was made, made a a very convincing 13-year old). The film focused only on a short period of Lewis' life - his rise to fame and fall from grace, which apparently all took place in the space of about a year. The film tells what appears to be a love story, and seems to set out to vindicate Lewis, so one would never guess that the marriage ended in divorce 13 years later. There is not even an epilogue indicating the fact that Lewis was married several more times following his divorce from his cousin. He is currently on his seventh marriage (the one to Brown being his third).
James adds:
I certainly shared Pam's aversion to the bedroom scenes, which would normally not be a problem in a Winona film! Even knowing that the actress was technically of age, the context was beyond creepy. I also wondered about the fact that all of the ire was directed at Lewis himself, and none of it at the institutions that legitimized his ongoing statutory rape. The church and state colluded in putting a sheen of legitimacy on a relationship that most agreed was transgressive in the extreme.
This film also explores the complex relationship Lewis had with another cousin - the Revered Jimmy Swaggart (played by Alec Baldwin, who also starred with Our Winona in Bettlejuice). It helps to explain the strong anti-rock crusades of the evangelical movement in the 1980s, which James encountered in Kansas City. A friend from church was a DJ at one of Swaggert's radio stations, and none of us could understand the extreme nature of the rules against rock music there. After viewing this film, it is easy to imagine that the famous preacher heard each rock song as a provocation from his more famous cousin.
Toward the end of the film, it occurred to me that although Quaid had to develop some piano skills for the shots that revealed his full arms (and, sometimes, legs) at the piano, a talented piano player was his double for many close-ups of the keyboard. "Who did they get for that?" I thought, not for a second imagining the answer: Jerry Lee Lewis himself was hammering the ivories in this film.
The film makers did not refrain from showing many of the deep flaws in his character, but his presence on the set surely tempered the overall tone.
Despite the high creepiness factor, this is an outstanding film, and among the best of Our Noni's performances.
Final Verdict: Four Croquet Balls
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