Ulee's Gold by writer and director Victor Nunez is a rare accomplishment. It has a very old and very young cast and it looks like little money was spent on the project. But if one lets it in, the film is a life-changer. Most fims, the majority of them, try to be novels and fail miserably. This is the rare exception and is EFFORTLESSLY lyrical, literary, and haunting. Peter Fonda Florida beekeeper Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson, a widower and Vietnam veteran.
The gold refers to the honey and there are powerful scenes of Ulee working with his bees. But the true delight is the incredible cast that features a very young Jessica Biel as teenager Casey and 9-year-old Penny (Vanessa Zima). The heart of the story - that can't be detailed but has to be seen - is about Ulee's troubled family. He is tending to grandchildren because their father is in jail.
The plot centers on Ulee's son and the troubled company that he kept that has returned. Not much more can be said than that except that the plot takes unexpected turns that make sense but are still devastating and heartwrenching. The problem in creating films like this is the necessity of time and place. Nunez has explored this territory before as his other films - Gal Young 'Un (1979), A Flash of Green (1984) and Ruby in Paradise (1993), that happened to a star a then unknown Ashley Judd — are set in Nunez's native Florida. It's a deep shame that Nunez never achieved and still has not achieved his well-earned status as a director of the first caliber. This isn't screenwriting but storytelling at it's finest and most confident. A good film from beginning to end that spiritually and emotionally leaves an impact. Perhaps the best case for considering film as a genuine form of art that is ever likely to be made.
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