The Hollywood Reporter

Film review
‘Big Eden’
By Michael Rechtshaffen
A feel-good fable about
home and heart, "Big
Eden" is an accomplished
first film by former retail
exec Thomas Bezucha.
Graced by rich, colorful
performances and a winning script; the official
closer of the sixth annual
Los Angeles Independent
Film Festival is set in a
small fictional Montana
town populated by some
of the most well-adjusted
people you could ever
hope to meet.
While it would be easy to
peg the picture as a gay
"Northern Exposure," to
do so would be to rob it of
its truly universal themes
of family and the search
for happiness. In fact;
with the right distributor
and some prudent pruning that would bring
down the running time
without upsetting the
agreeably ambling pace,
"Big Eden" could have
some potent crossover
commercial potential.
Leading a wonderful cast
is Arye Gross in the role of
Henry Hart, a successful
but lonely New York artist
who must miss his first big
showing when news of his
ailing grandfather, Sam
(George Coe) sends him
back to the small town of
his youth.
But Henry has more than
unresolved family business to deal with. It was
his unrequited love for his
high school buddy, former
jock Dean Stewart (Tim
DeKay) that sent him fleeing from Big Eden in the
first place. Now Dean has
returned, newly divorced
with custody of his two
young sons.
The ensuing emotional
trauma would have been
enough to send Henry
back into therapy had it not
been for the low-key presence of Pike Dexter (Eric
Schweig), the painfully
shy Native American
owner of the town general
store who is dispatched by
schoolteacher
Grace
Cornwell (a nurturing
Louise Fletcher) to deliver boxed dinners to Sam,
prepared by the meddling
but
gastronomically
impaired Widow Thayer
(Nan Martin).
To his own unwitting surprise, Pike finds himself
smitten by Henry but is a
nervous mess of inarticulated feelings. He instead
pours his stifled passion
into cooking ambitious
meals for Sam and Henry
that he quietly
BIG EDEN
Chaiken Films
substitutes for Producer................................................................ Jennifer Chaiken
John D. Vaughan
those he picks up Co-Producer..........................................................
Director-screenwriter............................................ Thomas Bezucha
of photography............................................. Rob Sweeney
from the Widow. Director
Production designer.............................................. Stephanie Carroll
Andrew London
Meanwhile, the Editor......................................................................
Costume designers............................ Sam Hamilton, Rene Holguin
Joseph Conlan
kindly towns- Music........................................................................
Music supervisor............................................................. Brian Ross
folk have been Casting......................................................................... David Bloch
Color/stereo
busy hatching a
Cast
little
match- Henry Hart..................................................................... Arye Gross
Pike Dexter.................................................................. Eric Schweig
making scheme Dean Stewart..................................................................Tim DeKay
Cornwell....................................................... Louise Fletcher
that appears to Grace
Sam Hart....................................................................... George Coe
Nan Martin
be about to pay WidowThayer.................................................................
Jim Soams............................................................. O'Neal Compton
Rudolph......................................................... Corinne Bohrer
off just when Anna
Mary Margaret Bishop.................................................. Veanne Cox
Running time- 118 minutes
Henry abruptly
No MPAA rating
announces
plans to return
technical contributions,
to New York.
including the bright lens
Given that "Big Eden" work by director of photakes place in a highly ide- tography Rob Sweeney
alized world where every- and Andrew London's
body is supportive and nicely paced editing style.
blissfully free of prejudice, And while the film gets
it's safe to say that a happy some maximum mileage
ending will ensue.
out of its generous selecWriter-director Bezucha tion of vintage hurtin'
effectively balances the songs, Joseph Conlan's
more moving moments score, on the other hand,
with terrific character has a rather unsubtle habit
quirks that are deftly han- of cueing the tribal themes
dled by his energetic cast. virtually
every
time
Gross' empathetic every- Schweig's character has a
man persona is put to good close-up.
use here, while Schweig's That kind of patronizing
masterfully internalized behavior has no place in a
Pike is particularly affectplace called Big Eden.
ing. Fletcher, Coe and the
extremely amusing Martin
also deliver the goods.
The same may also, for the
most part, be said of the