Big Stone Gap (2015)

In the spring of 2000 I served for six weeks in and around the community of Big Stone Gap, Virginia as part of my LDS mission. One of the most picturesque and charming little towns I spent time in, I was there right around the time the novel Big Stone Gap first came out. Said novel was by a town native named Adriana Trigiani who had previously been a writer on The Cosby Show and A Different World before becoming a novelist (I really do feel bad for anyone whose career is tied to Bill Cosby's). Set in 'the Gap' in the late 1970's BSG is the story of a 40ish town spinster of Italian extraction who never really felt like she belonged and finally finds true love and answers about her past after discovering a trove of letters that had been sent to her late mother. The novel was quite successful and as of now has spawned three sequels. Full of quirky characters, humor and a pleasant love story the novel was well suited to be adapted as feature film, so it's a little surprising that it took so long to come to the big screen.

I suspect that the reason for this however is that Trigiani wanted to make sure that the thing was done right, and she did, both adapting her own novel for the screen and directing the thing. Trigiani managed to put together a wonderful cast to bring her odd ball collection of character to life. Said film stars Ashley Judd as lead character Ave Maria Mulligan (perfect casting), Patrick Wilson and John Benjamin Hickey as her two love interests, and Whoopi Goldberg and Jenna Elfman as her two best friends Fleeta and Ivey Lou. Anthony LaPaglia also appears enjoyable cast against type as the preternaturally calm and soft spoken Spec Broadwater. A few characters from the novel are left out, like the two town handymen, but most everybody else makes at least a short appearance.

To me one of the most interesting things about the film is that it was shot in the actual Big Stone Gap, a town I haven't been in in 15 years, but one so small that I recognized much of what I saw on screen. It's a weird experience seeing a house you distinctly remember knocking on as a missionary up on a movie screen. Big Stone Gap is an enjoyable film of limited scope that is in no hurry to get where its going, a lot like the novel it was based on. While I preferred the book this is the next best thing. **1/2