A Hatful of Rain, based on the play by Michael V. Gazzo - 9.6 out of 10

A Hatful of Rain, based on the play by Michael V. Gazzo 
9.6 out of 10


This stupendous, wondrous motion picture has been included for the best of reasons on The New York Times' Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list and it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor, Golden Globes foe Best Actor and Leading Actress and more relevant trophies.

It is the complicated story of a family that has to deal with trauma, reminding one of the famous Leo Tolstoy quote: 'all happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'.
When old father, John Pope Sr.   arrives from Palm Beach, Florida, he is expecting good news and some money from his sons, his favorite, Johnny, and Polo Pope, the latter having told him that he has two thousand five hundred dollars waiting for him.

Alas, very soon we have adversity facing the characters, for Polo does not have the money, which 'are gone' and he has no answer to give when his aggravated parent keeps asking 'what do you mean is gone...where is it gone?'
John Pope Sr. had been very excited by a project he had started in Florida, where he has people working for him and waiting be paid from the money that are gone now...the couple of thousand would be quite a few hundred thousand today.

As a consequence of this terrible news, but also because Johnny has always been the favorite son, the father is looking for consolation with one child, for the harm he thinks the other has inflicted upon him.
Johnny is married to Celia aka Eva Marie Saint, a wonderful artist, famous from movies like On the Waterfront and West by Northwest.

There is a tremendous tension in the marriage though, for we soon learn that the husband spends many nights away, does not even touch his wife most of the time, although she is pregnant.
She is tormented by this practical if not legal separation, she abhores the fact that he never mentions the baby and acts like a complete stranger, absent for most of the time, even when physically present.

While the cat is away, the mice play is such a stupid proverb, like all the rest, Noica, our greatest, local philosopher affirmed.
However, in the absence of one brother, the other one becomes close to his sister in law, so much intimate they become that at least the man falls in love with the woman that is not sure of her feelings anymore.

Celia wants to and is faithful to her husband, at least in a literal sense, avoiding the chances of adultery,but at the same time, she admits to herself and to Polo that she had stopped loving her spouse...she thinks so  for a while anyway.
Thomas Man has a character in a short story that is very clear about the definition of love, friendship- they mean so much that you can only find real love and friends in literature...

Johnny is so terrible because he is a 'junkie', he is addicted to drugs and that is the real reason the money for the Palm Beach project are missing...Polo paid for the affliction of his brother.
The situation is ever more dangerous and complex as hoodlums, the thugs that provide the drugs enter the stage threatening the indebted, crushed Johnny.

The story of the name of the film is also fabulous...
When he was a child, Johnny was told by his father that the only way to get money is to work.

One day, the parent returns home to find the poor child has been digging fervently and checking his pockets to see the money coming in...

All he has got for this hard work was A Hatful of Rain!