| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | THE SPITFIRE GRILL (1996) |
| Director | Lee David Zlotoff |
| Writer | Lee David Zlotoff |
| Lead Actor | Alison Elliott |
| Cast | Alison Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton, Kieran Mulroney |
| Genre | Drama |
| Release Date | August 23, 1996 (United States) |
| Duration | 1h 57m (117 min) |
| Budget | $6 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDb Rating | 7.0/10 |
THE SPITFIRE GRILL
A female ex-con comes to a small town in Maine to repair her life and ends up restoring the damaged soul of the town. An offbeat idea by writer-director Lee David Slotoff (who created the MacGyver TV series), it was produced by a Catholic charity (Mississippi’s Sacred Heart League) because of its “Judeo-Christian values,” which beats writing letters to the editor complaining about moral decline.
This is not an explicitly religious movie, although a church is an important venue in the story. It’s a moral parable about damaged people and how compassion heals and brings them together.
The main focus is on the friendship that develops among three women: Percy (Allison Elliott), a young ex-con drawn to the town to escape her past; Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), a widow who runs the town’s only restaurant and the nurturing center of its community life; and cook-waitress Shelby (Marcia Gay Harden),
a kind young mother belittled and dominated by her husband, Nahum (Will Patton).
When the grill must finally be sold, the women run a national essay contest. People send in a small donation and explain why they’d like to own the grill. Some essays are crazy or funny, but many reveal the longing for a place to start over and rebuild lives.
Beyond that, the suspense hangs mainly on Nahum’s suspicions that Percy is still a criminal and plans to rob them, and on the shadowy hermit who lives in the woods and whom Percy befriends. All is resolved in a tragic event that ultimately brings the community together.
Spitfire is earnest and occasionally moving, but never totally convincing. Characters and plot devices seem overly forced and literary, and until the final moments, we never see enough of the Vermont hills used as locales. Satisfactory for youth and adults.
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