Heavy (1995)

★ 6.6 1h 45m IMDb

Drama Romance

Victor is a cook who works in a greasy roadside restaurant owned by his mother, Dolly. It's just the two of them, a waitress named Delores, and a heavy drinking regular, Leo. But things change when Callie, a beautiful college dropout, shows up as a new waitress and steals Victor's heart. But Victor is too shy to do anything about it, and too self-consciously overweight to dream of winning Callie away.

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Cast

Pruitt Taylor Vince as Victor Modino Age 65 · Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA Pruitt Taylor Vince (born July 5, 1960) is an American character actor. He had roles in the films Mississippi Burning (1988), Jacob's Ladder (1990), JFK (1991), Identity (2003), and Constantine (2005)...

Shelley Winters as Dolly Modino Died 2006 · St. Louis, Missouri, USA Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned almost six decades. She appeared in numerous films, and won Academy Awards for T...

Liv Tyler as Callie Age 48 · New York City, New York, USA Liv Rundgren Tyler (born Liv Rundgren; July 1, 1977) is an American actress. She began a modelling career at age 14 before making her film debut in Silent Fall (1994); she went on to achieve critical...

Debbie Harry as Delores Age 80 · Miami, Florida, USA Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie..

Joe Grifasi as Leo Age 81 · Buffalo - New York - USA Joseph G. "Joe" Grifasi (born June 14, 1944) is an American character actor of film, stage and television. Born in Buffalo, New York, Grifasi joined the U.S.

Director James Mangold

Cast Pruitt Taylor Vince, Shelley Winters, Liv Tyler, Debbie Harry, Joe Grifasi, Evan Dando, David Patrick Kelly, Marian Quinn, Meg Hartig, Zandy Hartig

Wuchak 7/10 May 16, 2024

**_Psychological study of “normal folks” at a rural bar/restaurant_**

In southeast New York, near the border of Pennsylvania, a shy tavern cook (Pruitt Taylor Vince) is concerned about his weight after finding himself attracted to the new server, a drop-out college student (Liv Tyler). The other worker, an aging blonde (Deborah Harry), naturally feels threatened by her. Shelley Winters plays the matriarch and Joe Grifasi a drunk that hangs out at the pub.

"Heavy" (1995) has been called the “Marty” of the ’90s. I’ve never seen that one, but it stars Ernest Borgnine in a role similar to the protagonist here. While this is a character study of Victor, it also evaluates Del (Harry, aka Blondie); and the others to a lesser extent.

Del is closing in on 50 years-old, but was surely stunning back in the day. She’s left to making a living at a small-time tavern with romantic options limited to a garrulous alcoholic and a quiet mama’s boy.

Obviously, this is not a flick for people who require an explosion every ten minutes to keep their attention (not that there’s anything wrong with that, lol). It’s a mundane drama about regular people and the social dynamics thereof — their (boring) daily lives, hopes, fears, regrets, grievances and lamentations. In part, it’s about people who have been caged so long they no longer know how to be free. It’s similar in tone to other 90’s dramas like "Sling Blade," which came out the next year, and “Limbo” (1999). While it lacks the survival element of the latter, does it really?

The frontman of The Pixies was approached to play the part of Victor, but he declined, saying he wasn’t interested in playing such a character. Regardless, he would’ve fit the role.

The movie runs 1 hour, 44 minutes, and was shot in southeast New York at Barryville (Victor’s house); five miles northeast of there in Highland Lake (the tavern); across the border of Barryville in Shohola, Pennsylvania (the bridge); and 80 miles northeast of that area in Hyde Park, NY, on the Huson River (Culinary Institute).

GRADE: B