The Spitfire Grill

1996 "To a town with no future, comes a girl with a past."
7| 1h57m| PG-13| en
Details

Percy, upon being released from prison, goes to the small town of Gillead, to find a place where she can start over again. She is taken in by Hannah, to help out at her place, the Spitfire Grill. Percy brings change to the small town, stirring resentment and fear in some, and growth in others.

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Reviews

Artivels Undescribable Perfection
GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
John E Ratt My sidekick gave it a 2, I give it a 3, we both agree it's made for TV and belongs on Lifetime or Hallmark. Fine for burning a few hours on the couch on Sunday, but not a good movie. The script is evidence of the thousands of movies that came before this one and the fact that the writer and producer had to somehow come up with something "new" enough to get the project funded. So the plot is rather cockamamie, forced, and silly soapy. While there are necessary unexpected twists and turns, the predictability came in the form knowing exactly when the writer was forced to add a new twist, and our "uh-huh, sure, yeah right" reaction each time. Struck us as overwritten and overacted, with bad music and bad attempts at Maine accents. Interesting to see the 1996 version of Marcia Gay Harden, and Ellen Burstyn is a name, however I'm sure they'd agree this is not their best work. Not terrible if you have absolutely nothing to do, but go find something to do.
snafux7 Let me make it simple for everyone...If you are a woman (especially if you happen to currently be menstruating) you will positively adore this movie. Just sit back with a glass of zinfandel and a box of tissues and enjoy. It is heavy-handed melodrama and cliché 'character' acting by all the usual female stereotypes but sometimes that isn't always a bad thing. I realize that this probably sounds condescending and insensitive so in advance let me apologize and recognize that everything I say is wrong anyway.If you are a dude on the other hand I hope and pray for you that you have a 2nd TV located in another room, preferably hooked up to a PS3 or XBOX so that you can properly recalibrate your testosterone level after watching the first 20 mins of this train wreck. It has absolutely nothing of interest to you, trust me. You know that feeling you get when you're alone in a room of women all talking at the same time and you can't leave? Now imagine an hour and a half of that with no respite, every time you think it cannot possibly go any further down the rabbit hole of "I do not give a f$*k" it somehow manages to kick it up a notch.As an aside, I was born and raised in the Northeast and the vast majority of 'Maine' accents in this film are about on par with the 'British' accents of Natalie Portman and Keanu Reeves, its pretty damn bad.Personally I think the average woman would give this 8-9 stars and the average guy would give it 1 or 2 so in all fairness I'm splitting the difference, we're it just up to me I'd give it either 1 or 0.
john-jennings-1 I happen to love chick flicks-if that is what this film is categorized as.I love this movie, as do so many others who've made comments before me in the IMDb site. It was one of those films where I held my breath throughout, sensing an evil that would probably overtake the heroine before the picture ended.And so it did. The ending angered me greatly...here we have this wonderful character Percy who begins to grow on the residents and is finally being accepted,except for one mouthy,jealous bigot,- real-estate agent Nahum Goddard,who will not accept Percy into their midst.This misshapen belief finally leads to a grave misunderstanding by the citizenry who hunt Percy down, which ends in her drowning in a rushing stream. At the end Nahum admits he was wrong to judge Percy so harshly but darn it all the harm has been done. I was angry at director Lee David Zlotoff who had the "power" to make this a happy ending. He wrote the script!!! Let's say for example that Nahum Goddard had drowned saving Percy in that stream. The man would have gone to his death via an act of redemption (isn't that a religious quality held dear by a tight Christian community) and our heroine would have gone on living happily ever after in a comfortable setting. I saw this film when it came out, and I even have 2-3 copies of it on DVD and VHS but I can just not watch it again. I know how sad the ending will be. I still give the film a 9 1/2 though,it was still a great production.(I need to express my ratings in fractions). If Percy had not been killed off I would have given it a 10 for perfection, no question. I'm sorry, but if a beloved character is killed off "unnecssarily", then I can not give the film a 10. Too bad I had not been in one of the advance screenings to express my views. If film companies and the Director/Producer want a 10 from me they had better try for a happy,or at least satisfying ending if at all possible. So much of life is a tragedy and that's why in part we go to the movies to get away from reality, to get a quick shot of hope and to see some element of happiness, even in dramatic circumstances.Percy did not deserve to die after all of us had fallen so much in love with her persona. Could we stand a Spitfire Grill 2 where she miraculously appears one day alive and well? Probably not...Darn it all Lee David Zlotoff, what were you thinking?
Claudio Carvalho Percy Talbott (Alison Elliot) is a young woman, who has just left jail, and goes to Gillead, a small town in Maine looking for a new beginning of her life. She gets a job in a diner place called Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah Ferguson Ellen Burstyn). Hannah lost her beloved son Elli in Vietnam, and is a very aggressive woman. Her nephew Nahum Goddard (Will Patton) is the local real-estate broker and has been trying to sell the place for ten years. He mistreat his wife Shelby Goddard (Marcia Gay Harden), questioning her intelligence most of the time. When Percy arrives in town, she changes the behavior not only of Hannah and Shelby, but of the local citizen, and deep secrets are disclosed. I bought the VHS "Spitgrill Fire" in 1998 and only today I have watched it. It is a sensitive story, filmed in beautiful locations in Maine and very supported by the performance by the outstanding central trio of actresses. The story is delightful most of the time and although having a good message in the end, I did not like the fate of Percy. I know life may be unfair, there are many envious and prejudicial people, but the story is fiction so I believe the writer used a very "heavy hand" to conclude the destiny of Percy. I would prefer a most commercial end for her character. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Spitfire Grill – O Recomeço" ("Spittfire Grill – The New Beginning")