The Spitfire Grill

Director: David Lee Zlotoff, Lee David Zlotoff David Lee Zlotoff

Overview

This debut drama from writer-director Lee David Zlotoff (creator of the TV series MacGyver) won the audience award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. Alison Elliott stars as Percy Talbott, an ex-convict who's come to the small Maine town of Gilead in the hope of finding work and a place to start her life over again. With the help of the local sheriff, she lands a waitress job at the Spitfire Grill, eventually winning over the crusty owner Hannah (Ellen Burstyn) and simple-minded fellow waitress Shelby (Marcia Gay Harden) with her hard work and trustworthiness. Percy even finds a new love with a woodsman, Joe (Kieran Mulroney) and befriends a hermit (John M. Jackson) who lives in the nearby woods and is regularly fed by Hannah. When Hannah falls ill, Percy devises a scheme to help her sell the café in a national contest, but Shelby's husband Nahum (Will Patton) doesn't trust Percy's motives -- and his suspicion leads to tragedy. The Spitfire Grill, which played as a cross between To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), got initial financing from an organization of Roman Catholic priests and sold at Sundance for a then-record $10 million.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/16/2013
UPC:	0883316841884
Original Release:	1996
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Warner Archives
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital]
Language:	English
Time:	1:56:00
Sales rank:	18,660

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alison Elliott	Percy Talbott
Ellen Burstyn	Hannah Ferguson
Marcia Gay Harden	Shelby Goddard
Will Patton	Nahum Goddard
Kieran Mulroney	Joe Sperling
Gailard Sartain	Sheriff Gary Walsh
Louise De Cormier	Effy Katshaw
John Jackson	Johnny B.,Customer No. 3
Ida Griesemer	Rebecca Goddard
Lincoln Grow	Molly Goddard,Molly Goddard
Sam Lloyd Sr.	Meeshack Boggs
Lisa Louise Langford	Jolene
Forrest Murray	Stuart
Patty Smith	Customer No. 1
Faith Caitlin	Neighbor
Janet St. Onge	Town Member No. 2
Jim Hogue	Deputy
Stacy Becker	Clare
Cliff Levering	Aaron Sperling
Dennis Mientka	Customer No. 2
Monica Callan	Woman at Bar
Richard Addis	Man at Bar

Technical Credits

Lee David Zlotoff

Lee David Zlotoff	Director,Screenwriter
Warren G. Stitt	Executive Producer
Forrest Murray	Producer
Danny Aiello III	Stunts
Marci Liroff	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Lee David Zlotoff's sentimental tale about a troubled young woman who stirs up the residents of a small town in northern Maine is excessively earnest and melodramatically overplotted but leavened with fine acting by its principals. Alison Elliot stars as the new waitress at the Spitfire Grill, where she confuses the suspicious townspeople of Gilead by returning their gossip and animosity with kindness and goodwill. Zlotoff, who seems to have intended the film as a Capra-esque fable of human goodness, leaves the relationship of the apparently schizoid townfolk and this woman in a hopeless muddle. It's also rife with subplots involving everything from the woman's mysterious past to a contest to choose the new owner of the café, but none of them could matter less. However, the plot thread of the woman's bonding with restaurant owner Ellen Burstyn and withdrawn housewife Marcia Gay Harden, a scenario reminiscent of the superior Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), is the film's strongest element, mostly thanks to the superb acting of these three. It seems impossible to believe that protestors could have been disturbed by the film's nimbus of mild spirituality.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello