The tale of a lonely Southern woman's longing for her handsome next-door neighbor. At once tragic and romantic, the story is a reworking of the Williams play "Summer and Smoke," which uses the same characters and setting but in dramatically different ways.
Acting
Blythe Danner's Alma: trembling, transcendent, utterly heartbreaking.
Direction
Glenn Jordan lets the theatrical roots breathe without suffocating the camera.

Director
Glenn Jordan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Williams preferred this rewritten version to 'Summer and Smoke,' calling the original 'too soft.' He essentially ghost-wrote his own remix.
Alma's 'nervous heart' made visible: Williams modeled her on his sister Rose, whose lobotomy haunted his entire career.
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