A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

REVIEW
One sublime characteristic of Merchant Ivory productions is that as they tell a story, they also capture a mood, a time, a frame of mind. Kristofferson plays Bill Willis, an American writer in Paris, ex-soldier, expatriate, living in affluence with his wife (Hershey) and daughter, and writing about war as Vietnam begins its decades-long dominance of the world's television screens. They adopt a young French child, not orphaned but abandoned, and bring him into their loving if eccentric fold. The film progresses as does life itself, time moving by and twisting back on itself and passed (past) before we know it. The indelible influence of family bonds its members, forming our expectations, delineating our sense of self and structuring our relationship with the world. The actors impart presence and sensitivity to their roles, especially the two talents who portray the daughter Channe (Conlon plays her at age 7; Sobieski at 14 up), who is arguably the film's pivotal character. Stages of life pass like seasons of the year, lyrical cycles of joy and tragedy, gain and loss; momentous events marked by definitive statements expressed in the smallest gestures. A remarkable film describing an arc in one family's life, bearing witness to the fact that our history is always with us.