Ulee's Gold

recommended

Directed with a slow, even hand by Victor Nunez (Ruby in Paradise), this character-driven film features a number of excellent performances. Peter Fonda is gracious and Henry-like as Ulee, a Vietnam veteran turned beekeeper in Southern Florida who's caring for his two granddaughters (Jessica Biel and Vanessa Zima: both particularly wonderful) while his son (Tom Wood) serves a prison sentence for robbery. The son presses Ulee to retrieve the girls' mother (Christine Dunford), a junkie who's been hanging with the wrong creepazoids (the son's former partners in crime). Ulee has his own demons to deal with (memories of his six-years-dead wife, guilt over surviving the war when none of his buddies did, and generational tensions with the girls), but finds himself, eventually, inclined to loosen up with the help of the wholly sensible doctor/neighbor (Patricia Richardson) who helps him with his daughter-in-law's withdrawal and recovery (with strong parallels drawn to his own process of recuperation).

—Cindy Fuchs