Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

BettiePageGirl I love this movie and watch it EVERY time it comes on TV, even better when it's on a premium movie channel and you don't have to put up with ridiculous commercials. Ileana Douglas is an amazing actress with both comedy and drama ability. Beautiful woman with the most amazing doe eyes. She portrays a woman struggling (as we women always seem to have to do) in a "mans" world to be a music writer. With a bad marriage under her skirt and several other issues, she knows pain and heartache all too well which gives her the ammo she needs. Not doing too well with recording her own music she needs a little more courage to put herself out there. Well, it's a great portrayal of a woman who can't seem to get a break in her personal life but flourishes as a song writer. The music is great, going from the 60's to the 70's and for someone like me who was born in '59, appreciates when music was music and you could actually stand to even listen to a little pop music. Sure, there are a few comparisons to real musicians, writers and producers like Jay (Brian Wilson), Denise/Edna (Carole King), Joel (Phil Spector)but it takes on it's own story line and you just to have to come to your own conclusion. I appreciate the story and music and hail Alison Anders as an excellent director and phenomenal writer. Go figure, this good of a movie, written and directed by a woman. Wow, imagine that!

Maddyclassicfilms Grace of My Heart is directed by Allison Anders, it is loosely based on the life of real life singer and songwriter Carole King.It's shockingly underrated and features some brilliant songs. The film stars Illeana Douglas, John Tuturro and Matt Dillon.Beginning in the late 1950's, aspiring singer Edna Buxton(Illeana Douglas)is entering a singing competition and does not sing what her mother (Christina Pickles) tells her to.Edna wins the competition and gets a recording contract.Moving to New York she meets famous song manager Joel Millner(John Tuturro), he helps her on the road to stardom and becomes her lifelong friend and confidant.Changing her name to Denise Waverley, she writes a number of hits and becomes a famous and much sought after name in the music industry.She faces a lot of personal tragedies but she overcomes all the hardship and tries to get her life back on track.Also starring Eric Stoltz as her co-writer boyfriend and Christine Pickles as her mum. Grace of My Heart is a beautiful and touching film filled with great music. Some of my favourite songs are Born To Love That Boy and Living In Another World.If you haven't heard of this one try and find it on DVD, it's well worth watching and is filled with fantastic performances. This is a film that deserves to be much better known.

lastliberal It's Martin Scorsese day. he didn't direct this one, but produced it, and it's a winner. After 3 and a half hours of Bob Dylan, I was enchanted by the songs here. The soundtrack is a real tribute to love in all it's forms and fashions.Writer/Director Allison Anders, who started accumulating award nominations from her first movies (Border Radio; Sugar Town; Gas, Food Lodging) gives us a beautifully flowing story of a singer trying to break into the business, but settling for a career as a songwriter. It featured a lot of singers from the era, including one inspired by Lesley Gore, a favorite of mine, and who helped write songs for the movie.Illeana Douglas (Stir of Echoes, Happy, Texas, Cape Fear) was magnificent as the "Carol King"-inspired lead, as was John Turturro (The Big Lebowski, Fear X) as her manager.If you like the music of the sixties, and you want to see the first time a woman's water breaks on film, then this is it. A good use of your time.

Woodyanders The chronically under-appreciated Illeana Douglas gives a characteristically glowing, winsome, totally spot-on performance as aspiring singer/songwriter Denise Waverly, who during a very turbulent and wildly eventful fifteen year time span goes from being a frustrated, creatively stifled behind-the-scenes magic maker to eventually acquiring the clout and courage to branch out on her own to sing her own material in a strong, assertive, independent female voice. Learning under the expert tutelage of cranky, eccentric, misanthropic Brill Building impresario Joel Millner (a fabulously freaky John Turturro) and enduring a steady succession of unsuccessful romantic relationships with footloose, insecure, insensitive bohemian songwriter Howard Castatt (a perfectly jerky Eric Stoltz), conventional married disc jockey John Murray (a typically fine Bruce Davison), and brilliantly innovative, but paranoid and temperamental surf-rock composer Jay Phillips (a splendidly spaced-out Matt Dillon), the extremely intelligent and resilient Denise uses her bittersweet life experiences as prime fodder for her ever evolving and emotionally charged songs.Flavorfully documenting rock music's growth from effervescent girl group pop to trippy psychedelic experimentation to intensely personal singer/songwriter confessional tunes, Allison Anders' simply sensational feature, loosely based on the real-life exploits of Carole King (besides the obviously King-influenced Denise, most of the other characters are clearly composites of various actual rock people as well) and executive produced by Martin Scorsesse, crackles with all the joyous vibrancy and infectious exuberance of the marvelously dynamic and exciting music scene its set in. Anders' deft, assured direction and sharply perceptive script, both keenly tuned in to the mercurial zeitgeist of the 60's and the then burgeoning women's right movement, works as both invigorating rock music history and inspirational pro-feminist tract alike. The splendidly catchy and melodious Larry Klein-produced soundtrack, Jean Yves Escoffier's smooth, agile, gliding cinematography, a story which manages to be genuinely touching without ever lapsing into mawkishly contrived sentiment, an absorbing, minutely detailed backstage glimpse at the pop music songwriting and recording process, and the uniformly superlative acting -- Patsy Kensit as Denise's longtime songwriting partner and loyal gal pal Cheryl Steed, Bridget Fonda as awkward closeted lesbian pop singer Kelly Porter, and David Clennon as a flaky hippie shrink are especially terrific -- round out this positively radiant and utterly delightful gem.