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Movie Review: The Songcatcher

By Melissa Markham on June 20, 2008 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The Songcatcher was a movie that I picked to watch from Netflix. I picked it based on the Netflix description.

"During a visit to her sister in Appalachia, gifted musicologist Dr. Lily Penleric (Janet McTeer) stumbles upon a musical treasure trove -- dozens of Scots-Irish ballads that have been preserved for generations by the local populace and are unknown to the outside world. Intent on collecting the beautiful songs, Dr. Penleric comes to admire the locals, who live a tough, hardscrabble existence without complaint. "

I have an interest in stories about Appalachia and I have a friend who has written a book about a song-catcher, who did pretty much what Dr. Penleric was doing. But I was not impressed with this movie that seemed to be trying to use a real life situation to slide in their own political agenda.

The main story was indeed about a song-catcher who was collecting these beautiful and centuries old ballads. But instead of focusing the story on how these songs had been passed down through generations and instead of focusing on how the songs were such a part of life for these mountain people, other story lines were introduced to muddy the waters. True, Dr. Penleric does at one time mention that she has never been anywhere where music was such a part of life, this theme isn't really explored...though for the observant, you can't help but notice how during times of sadness and happiness, the people erupt into song.

But add into that the fact that Dr. Penleric is a very intelligent woman bucking the male establishment and being passed over for promotion in favor of men. She is also having an affair with a married male professor. She however becomes righteously indignant when she finds out that her sister, whose school she is visiting in the Appalachians, is having a lesbian affair. Neither of these stories really did much for the movie as a whole and detracted from what to me was the real story...the story of the songs.

I give this movie a 3 stars (and I will say, I loved Aidan Quinn...), but overall, I wish that the writer/directors hadn't felt the need to muddy the waters with the stories that really did little for the movie as a whole.