Love Field (1992)

I know this is all set around the assassination of President Kennedy, but every time I saw Michelle Pfeiffer here I just thought of Marilyn Monroe! Anyway, she’s the contentedly married “Lurene” who tells husband “Ray” (Brian Kerwin) that she’s a mind to attend the President’s funeral. “Yeah, right”, thinks he and goes to bed. She, on the other hand, is quite serious so shoves some stuff in a suitcase and gets the Greyhound bus towards DC. It’s quite a schlep from their Dallas home, but on the bus she befriends - whether he likes it or not - “Paul” (Dennis Haysbert) and his shy young daughter “Jonell” (Stephanie McFadden). She quite quickly senses that all isn’t quite right here, but given they are African Americans there are additional concerns she ought to be wary of before she goes an-interfering. She’s a good-natured soul, though, and soon we learn a little of what’s going on just as things start to come to an head that has them holing up trying to avoid the police and her pursuing husband! The confined space of the bus helps this a little and Pfeiffer delivers quite engagingly, but there’s a real paucity of story. It plays to the prejudices of the time, especially those exacerbated by the murder of JFK that caused heightened tensions, but unlike the bus, it doesn’t really go anywhere. There’s a light humour amidst the rather wordy dialogue and the young McFadden acquits herself quite well, but Haysbert adds little with a role that could have been more potently presented. It all somewhat disappointingly peters out, I’m afraid.