The Straight Story (1999)

G10/15/1999Drama1h 52m
  • User
    Score

A true story that proves a little determination goes a very, very long way.

Overview

A retired farmer and widower in his seventies named Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. He then has the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

Top Billed Cast

  1. Cast 1

    Richard Farnsworth

    Alvin

  2. Cast 1

    Sissy Spacek

    Rose

  3. Cast 1

    Jane Galloway Heitz

    Dorothy

  4. Joseph A. Carpenter

    Bud

  5. Donald Wiegert

    Sig

  6. Cast 1

    Tracey Maloney

    Nurse

  7. Cast 1

    Dan Flannery

    Doctor Gibbons

  8. Jennifer Edwards

    Brenda

  9. Ed Grennan

    Pete

I’ve seen loads of road movies over the years, but never one that involved an elderly gent travelling from Iowa to the adjacent Wisconsin driving his lawnmower! “Alvin” (Richard Farnsworth) is a curmudgeonly seventy-something whose health and mobility are failing and who lives with his daughter “Rose” (Sissy Spacek) - a lady without her own problems to seek, too! When he learns that his estranged brother “Lyle” has had a stroke, he determines to visit him after a ten year hiatus. The bus, the train, a plane? Nope. He hitches a trailer to his grass cutter and off he goes. Unsurprisingly, he doe...