THE STARS FELL ON HENRIETTA: Blu-ray (Warner Bros./Malpaso, 1995) Warner Archive
I do not recall ever seeing director, James Keach’s The Stars Fell on Henrietta (1995) grace a movie marquee at my local cinema. There is probably good reason for this. As, although the picture was produced by Clint Eastwood’s indie label, Malpaso, for Warner Bros., and sports an exquisitely nuanced performance by its star, Robert Duvall, a killer supporting cast to include Aidan Quinn (as Don Day), Frances Fisher (his wife, Cora), Brian Dennehy (as the ruthless Big Dave McDermot), Billy Bob Thornton (Roy) and Victor Wong (Henry Nakai), not to mention stellar production design by Henry Bumstead, and, excellent cinematography by Bruce Sertees, it all somehow fails to come together and weave its inspirational tale of the underdog makes good into pure movie magic. Even at 109 minutes, The Stars Fell on Henrietta just seems to outlast its welcome by at least half that meager runtime. There are some wonderful scenes in it, as when Duvall’s hard-on-his-luck, though ever-optimistic Mr. Cox
