Where the Heart Is

Stewart McBain (Dabney Coleman) is a clever demolition specialist in New York who sees his perfect house demolitions as art. When his daughter (Uma Thurman) demonstratively joins the activists whose resistance spares the historic Dutch House in Brooklyn from demolition, McBain's patience snaps. He decides that his affluent children should learn to fend for themselves and drops all three of them off in front of the Dutch House one night. With echoes of King Lear, father and daughter Boorman's screenplay skillfully pull out all the stops between polished dialogue and over-the-top comedy. The colorful film was originally set in London, but the US producers convinced Boorman to move the action to New York. Unleashed Wall Street capitalism and dreamy naivety come together in the ironic gaze of a British director: An Englishman in New York. (E.S.)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum