Ulee’s Gold

The gold in the title is the honey that the beekeeper Ulee (Ulysses) Jackson (Peter Fonda) collects to make ends meet. His wife died six years ago. Ulee is a kind of hermit who brings up his two granddaughters on his own. His son Jimmy is in jail after a safe job and his addicted daughter-in-law has disappeared. Casey, the eldest of the two girls, looks with some disdain on the activities of her grandpa, whom she thinks is only preoccupied in practical things. Jimmy begs his father to go in search of his missing wife, who has fallen into the hands of two partners-in-crime who are waiting for the money that Jimmy hid. Ulee becomes involved, against his will, with the attempts of the petty thieves to get their hands on the money.îBefore he started on Ulee’s Gold, Victor Nuñez made three small, well-received films, Gal Young ‘Un, A Flash of Green and above all Ruby in Paradise. On the basis of this, he was helped by Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) and Orion Pictures to make Ulee’s Gold. This modest film is borne in an almost old-fashioned way by the power of the characters and the detailed human drama that is told. The film has been praised for the ‘small’ scale of the acting. Nuñez’ direction of this moving film is comparable with that of Cassavetes. Keep a close eye on Peter Fonda, who is slowly but surely acquiring the patina of his good old dad Henry.