‘Alone’: A Family Story on the Farm

Horton Foote’s “Alone” is a story about personal values, about the illusions of materialism and the transcendence of the land. Like much of the two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter’s other work (“Tender Mercies,” “The Trip to Bountiful”), it examines broad thematic material through the small, personal stories of ordinary people.

The drama centers around John Webb, an elderly Texas farmer, portrayed in warm, twinkle-in-the-eye fashion by Hume Cronyn. Webb’s gentle American Gothic farm life is thrown into turmoil when his two nephews--who have inherited the mineral rights to the farm from Webb’s deceased brother--eagerly market the rights to an oil-drilling company.

Despite his reservations, Webb goes along with the project, aware that the nephews and their families can make good use of the unexpected income from the sale of the rights. The nephews and their wives, however, expect even more, anxiously awaiting the gush of oil that will make them rich.

With the bobbing oil drill in the background, the stresses and strains in each of the family groupings begin to emerge. How do the nephews’ families handle the initial financial windfall, and what will be the impact upon them if oil is, indeed, discovered? Can Webb persuade his reluctant daughter and son-in-law to live on the isolated farm? And, at the core of his emotions, how will he deal with his continuing grief over the recent death of his wife?

As the story builds to its climax, Foote deals with these various, overlapping issues, with the interaction between the family members, with great concern for the integrity of individual emotions.

There is, however, a staged quality to many of the scenes and to much of the dialogue, as though the piece had been originally written for the larger, more declamatory venue of the theater. Many of the scenes, in fact, are staged theatrically, with actors moving into camera range, stage-style, from background to foreground.

Equally problematic, the nephews and their wives (played by Chris Cooper, Frederic Forrest, Shelley Duvall and Hallie Foote) come across as somewhat contrived characters. Each has some kind of signature quality--Cooper’s headaches, Duvall’s desire for riches--which marks, rather than explains their individuality.

These carps aside, the essential themes of “Alone”--that money doesn’t necessarily make happiness, that country life has qualities of serenity and beauty that don’t exist in the city, and that family (whether related by blood or by friendship) is the most essential connection--are themes worth restating.

And, slow and occasionally sketchy as “Alone” may be, it emerges as a whole dramatic piece, with convincing strength and believability.

* “Alone” airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Showtime. The network has rated it TV-PG (may not be suitable for young children).