MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘End of the Line’: Train Slows in the North

“End of the Line� (selected theaters) is set in a small Southern town--Clifford, Ark.--full of hot, dusty back roads, gas stations, hunting dogs and tacky beauty parlors: One of those places that sometimes seems trapped in a wedge between the mid-’50s and now.

The movie is caught in a generational cross fire, too. It’s the story of two old railroad men, played by Wilford Brimley and ex-Band member Levon Helm, who mount a symbolic battle against the company that closed down their yard by driving a train to Chicago to call on the chairman of the board. Their crusade is reminiscent of those populist ‘30s comedies, in which “average� Americans took on big- money city slickers. It’s like all those films where small-town American values--loyalty, honesty and decency--battle with a greedy Establishment and, somehow, win out.

This is Frank Capra’s vein, a Depression movie genre. And the film makers here treat their background as part of a modern-day Depression. Clifford is a dying town, about to have its heart line cut out. The distant Southland Corp. is converting from trains to air freight--and Clifford’s main enemy, president of the company, is nasal-voiced pipsqueak Warren Gerber (Bob Balaban), who sees everything in terms of corporate moves and public relations. Ironically, Gerber--a glib young technocrat--wants to exploit Brimley’s Will Haney and Helm’s Leo Pickett for public relations: use them in TV commercials.

As the low-budget feature debut of a young, first-time writer-director, Jay Russell, “End of the Line� has some remarkable things. First of all there’s the cast. Having Brimley and Helm in a movie together, in two tailor-made roles, is a wonderful notion. Each has a genuine, sturdily rural American quality, and together--as the train rambles through sunny landscapes, and their talk mixes Helm grin and drawl and Brimley pepper--it’s a joy to see and hear them.

They’re supported by a cast of scene-stealers: Mary Steenburgen, Kevin Bacon, Barbara Barrie, and as a surprise bonus, Holly Hunter--from her pre-�Broadcast News� days. To have them all united like this--for a film maker, barely out of Columbia’s film school, is an embarrassment of riches: one in which Steenburgen, the movie’s executive producer, may have had a hand.

Russell also has a talent for gently exaggerated rural dialogue, and eccentric humor. He can seduce you into the relaxed tempos of his mythical Clifford, create a kind of instant nostalgia.

But “End of the Line� reaches its high points too soon. The first half of the movie is much better than the second. As long as Russell stays in the rural South, his observations--the lazy limber motions, the eccentricities spilling over into everyday routines--are steady, funny and likable. But he has a tendency to push some jokes too hard: like the one-legged railroad bum who keeps popping up, or a drunken suicide pact between Haney and Pickett.

And, once the movie gets to the big city, the humor gets thoroughly arch, the story too highly colored, spicy and false. The whole rhythm--with the exception of one nice scene between the railroad men and chairman Clinton (Henderson Forsythe)--goes choppy and out of control.

Even so, “End of the Line� (MPAA rated: PG) is a pleasant, promising debut for a warmly skilled, humane young film maker--aided by a really delightful cast. Together, they make you a little misty, for both the vanished train lines, and the nearly vanished America whose values the film so firmly celebrates.

‘END OF THE LINE’

An Orion Classics release of an Imagine Entertainment presentation. Producers Lewis Allen, Peter Newman. Director Jay Russell. Script John Wohlbruck, Russell. Music Andy Summers. Camera George Tirl. Production design Neil Spisak. Editor Mercedes Danevic. With Wilford Brimley, Levon Helm, Mary Steenburgen, Barbara Barrie, Henderson Forsythe, Bob Balaban, Kevin Bacon, Holly Hunter.

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

MPAA rating: PG (parental guidance suggested; some material may not be suitable for children).