Good start, but then it gets ruined

Absolutely Fantastic

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Nice approach to life in New England in the beginning of the 20th century. It is told from the viewpoint of one of it's inhabitants, who acts as the narrator throughout the movie. Adapted from a Broadway show, it tells of the coming of age of two teenage neighbors who grew up together and eventually marry. It has an attractive cast with a good supporting actors to flesh out the story, a simple and predictable tale of simple and predictable people.The story is perhaps too true to life, as it is unexciting and lacks a compelling scene or event to draw the viewer in. Pleasant and agreeable, but plodding and even-handed and somewhat overrated for my taste. But that's what moviegoing is all about. The star rating is in the heading. The website no longer prints mine.

"Our Town" is an old fashioned, overly quaint play that probably belongs on the stage. But this 1940 film version directed by Sam Wood probably does as good a job as anyone else could at bringing it to life on screen. And the fact that it debuted on the eve of WWII gives its simplistic, misty-eyed attitudes about small-town American life an added poignancy. Now, in Trump America, it feels like an artifact of a previous epoch. Do towns like this even exist anymore? Rural desperation and a conservative gun culture have pretty much decimated the charms of small-town America today.An extremely young William Holden plays the male lead, and it's distracting to see him trying to play a character so much younger than he probably was when he made this movie. The same is somewhat true of his love interest, Martha Scott, as well, though she fares better, probably because she had the advantage of performing in the stage version first. The better performances come from a bevy of seasoned character actors like Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, and Guy Kibbee."Our Town" was nominated for six Academy Awards, but won none of them: Outstanding Production, Best Actress (Scott), Best B&W Art Direction, Best Original Score and Scoring (Aaron Copland was nominated for both categories; I've never understood how a score could be eligible for both), and Best Sound Recording.Grade: B+

It's one thing to take a book, which is always considerably longer and rife with characters, and do some cutting and re-tooling. It is quite another to take a scripted play, one that has survived the test of time, and abuse the author's intent. This is like taking "A Glass Menagerie" and having Laura Wingfield regain the proper use of her legs. What a joke that would be. This is every bit as startling. It uses the cheapest Hollywood, 1940's encroachment on artistic rights to tell its own story. Without the sadness of death this is a different story. Maybe if they changed the name of the movie to "Your Town," we wouldn't have any expectation of truth. Apparently, Thornton Wilder had his own wishes imposed upon. I'm glad there are three other versions of this, so we can see it done properly.

i'm a big movie fan and until today, i had no idea that this film version of the stage play even existed. i did not enjoy this at all. i'm surprised this movie was made during this time period because of the manner and style of the play. this is not a play that could be be easily translated to film and this version proves it. the rhythm of the film is uneven as is the tone of the film. the "dream sequence" is confusing and not true to the play. but maybe the audience of that time would have found the death of a main character too depressing, but it's an important part of the play and in the movie, that whole sequence is just bad and hokey. it's actually hard to describe exactly what's wrong with this movie, it's just not good. it took me a minute to recognize william holden! i think that's the youngest i've seen him in a movie. i'm glad his acting improved so much. most of the acting was just fine, but a lot of the emotions and dialog seemed staged and forced. again, i think the problem lies with trying to turn this type of a play, into a film. it just doesn't work.