How to Make an American Quilt

How to Make an American Quilt is a 1995 American drama film based on the 1991 novel of the same name by Whitney Otto. Directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the film features Winona Ryder, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Nelligan and Alfre Woodard. It also marked Jared Leto’s film debut. The film received a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
Characters.
Finn Dodd.
Main character. Following a proposal of marriage from her boyfriend Sam (Dermot Mulroney), Finn (Winona Ryder) decides to visit her great aunt and grandmother to finish her thesis and think over the proposal. At her grandmother's house, a quilting group congregates, and she's shocked and surprised to discover that the current quilt that they're working on is a wedding gift for her when she gets married. The theme of the quilt is "where love resides". As Finn is unsure whether she's ready for marriage or whether he's "the one", the stories of the women in the quilting group open her eyes to the different kinds of love that exist. During her time at her grandmother's house, she meets Leon (Johnathon Schaech) at the local pool and embarks on a brief affair with him. Eventually, wrapped in her quilt and following a crow (reminiscent of Anna's tale about her aunt), she comes across Sam and chooses to stay with him.
Sophia Darling.
When she was in her early twenties, Sophia (Samantha Mathis/Lois Smith) was a talented diver with dreams of escaping her small town and overbearing mother. One day she meets Preston Richards (Loren Dean) while diving at the local pool and romance ensues. He's attracted by her fearlessness and she believes he can take her away from her current, oppressive way of life. However, motherhood turns out to be just as, if not more, oppressive and married life soon grinds her down. With three children and little help from her husband who is frequently away because of his job, she no longer has time to dive and eventually forgets the feeling of freedom and escape it gives her. One day she snaps at her husband for digging a pond in the back garden. In an attempt to remind her of the girl he fell in love with, he tells her the pond is for her to wade in. After she rejects his efforts, he realizes that her free spirit is gone. One morning he leaves for work, never to return. Abandoned, bitter, and trapped in a life she didn't want, Sophia ends up like her overbearing mother, particularly in her relationship with Finn.
Years later, when the wind blows part of Finn's thesis into the pond, she wades in to get it. With her feet in the pool, she remembers what her husband tried to remind her of all those years ago, and one of the last scenes shows her diving off the high dive.
Em Reed.
Em (Jean Simmons/Joanna Going) marries young, like most of the women in the story. Despite the promiscuity of her artistic husband Dean (Derrick O'Connor/Tim Guinee), she stays with him for a period of time. Eventually, after discovering yet another affair, she leaves him whilst pregnant. She returns to her parents' home, but it still takes three months before Dean comes to find her. He begs forgiveness yet again, and her parents pack her bags, loading them into Dean's car. At this point, Em has no choice but to return to her broken life.
Years later, she suspects Constance is having an affair with Dean, which causes friction between the two. Later, she realizes that, in his own way, Dean does truly love her when she takes shelter in his studio during a sudden wind storm and discovers numerous paintings of her telling the story of their life together over the years.
Glady Joe Cleary and Hy Dodd.
Gladiola (Glady) Joe (Claire Danes/Anne Bancroft) and Hyacinth (Hy) (Alicia Goranson/Ellen Burstyn) are Finn's great aunt and grandmother and sisters to one another. At one point, Hy goes to visit her dying husband in the hospital. Despite her deep love for her husband, she leaves the hospital and sleeps with Glady's husband Arthur (Rip Torn) in a moment of weakness and tragic emotion. After Glady discovers the truth, she smashes every one of her porcelain figurines and plasters them onto the wall of the laundry room as a reminder of her anger. Glady never really forgives Arthur and does not forgive Hy until the end of the movie. Their reconciliation is symbolized by the demolition of the plastered walls in the laundry room when Glady realizes that her love for her sister overcomes her feelings of betrayal.
Constance Saunders.
Constance (Kate Nelligan) had a happy and fulfilling marriage until her husband, Howell (Richard Jenkins), died, leaving her a young widow. While he was alive, Howell gave Constance a dog to keep her company. Although it is rumored that she is having an affair with Dean, she knows that her love for her husband and her dog are her true companions. Her panel for Finn's wedding quilt depicts a yellow rose bush under which she and Howell buried the dog after it died.
Anna Neale.
As a young maid, Anna (María Celedonio/Maya Angelou) starts an affair with her boss's son, Beck (Jared Leto), who's visiting from Chicago. She becomes pregnant by him, and when her great aunt Pauline (Esther Rolle) finds out about the pregnancy she sends Anna away with their family story quilt (which she had sold to the boss's wife). During her pregnancy, Anna met Glady and Hy when she was taken in by their family. She becomes particularly close with Glady, eventually teaching her to quilt. During one of these quilting lessons, she starts labor, eventually giving birth to Marianna (Alfre Woodard). It's only then that Anna realizes that her fancy notion of romantic love was nothing in comparison to the maternal love she feels for Marianna. Anna now orchestrates the quilting group.
Marianna Neale.
Marianna gives the appearance of being in love with her promiscuous freedom until a moment of vulnerability comes in a conversation with Finn. She speaks of a man that she met in France. They had met and spent one evening together during which they connected over a meeting of minds before she discovered that he was married. Although she has taken many lovers since, she realizes this man is her soulmate and she doesn't even know his name.
Reception.
"How to Make an American Quilt" received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a 62% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10.
In a review for "The New York Times", Caryn James gave praise to both Moorhouse's "cut-to-the-quick" direction and Anderson's script for crafting an adaptation of a "decidedly uncinematic novel." She added that the film manages to give off the impression that "we are not watching movie women but real women, with shaky judgment and lifetimes of reasons to resent and forgive one another as well as all the men in their lives." Roger Ebert commended the stories involving Woodard and Capshaw's characters for being the most heartfelt but found the rest of them devoid of any emotional resonance compared to the tales told in the film adaptation of Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club", stating that they have lives "largely recycled from sweet movies and tasteful romantic novels." Eve Zibart of "The Washington Post" stated that despite Bancroft's performance being "right on the ceiling" in terms of over the top and saying that Ryder "seems for once to be acting, and not entirely comfortably", she praised the rest of the actresses for being "theatrical indulgence by a cast of stahs."