Unstrung Heroes movie storyline. When young Steven’s mother Selma is diagnosed with ovarian cancer and becomes increasingly ill, his eccentric and emotionally distant inventor father Sid — despite deep reservations — allows him to live with his dysfunctional uncles, pack rat Arthur and delusional paranoid Danny, in their cluttered apartment in the rundown King Edward Hotel.
The two, who live in a setting worthy of the Collyer brothers, rechristen the boy with the more colorful name Franz and help him cope with his emotions by teaching him to value his own uniqueness. Learning from the odd pair that even though hope and science may fail us, art always survives, Franz secretly begins to create a memorial to his mother before she dies, filling a box with personal mementos — a tube of lipstick, an empty Chanel bottle, a cigarette lighter, and the like.
Unstrung Heroes is a 1995 American comedy-drama film directed by Diane Keaton. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on a memoir by journalist Franz Lidz. It stars Andie MacDowell, John Turturro, Michael Richards, Maury Chaykin, Anne De Salvo, Celia Weston, Jack McGee, Candice Azzara, Kendra Krull and Lillian Adamsb
Thomas Newman was nominated for the Academy Award for Original Music Score and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television. Michael Richards was nominated for the American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.
Film Review for Unstrung Heroes
Diane Keaton’s “Unstrung Heroes” is a warm, surprising, gently incandescent film that discreetly describes a family tragedy. It’s about a husband, Sid Lidz (John Turturro), who “would say there was nothing broken that science couldn’t fix,” and his wife, Selma Lidz (Andie MacDowell), who has the bad luck to prove him wrong. All this is seen, with sweet eccentricity and even improbable joie de vivre, through the eyes of the couple’s worried young son, who during Selma’s terminal illness turns for help to his crazy uncles. At any other time in the life of the Lidz family, the film makes clear, this would be a last resort.
One a pack rat (Maury Chaykin) and the other a paranoid (Michael Richards), these uncles live together in a more artful version of the Collier brothers’ domestic style. But as busy as they are saving newspapers and collecting clown pictures, they somehow find the sanity to help their nephew through an extremely difficult time.
So the uncles are seen passing along their survival skills, to the point where this film becomes a celebration of quirky independence and the sustaining powers of art and memory. On top of that, “Unstrung Heroes” also succeeds in becoming very moving without being maudlin. There will be tears in the audience, but there aren’t many on the screen.
The basis for this story is a memoir by Franz Lidz, a book more grounded in authentic events than the film cares to be. Ms. Keaton and the screenwriter, Richard LaGravenese, successfully transport this material to a more whimsical, stylish level than the literal one where it started, so that (for instance) any hint of staleness or claustrophobia about the uncles’ household disappears. The film doesn’t need that grimness, and it has its own ideas about family life.
With “A Little Princess” and “The Bridges of Madison County” to his recent credit, Mr. LaGravenese again shows himself to be an exceptionally agile screen adapter, expanding the essence of what makes a story work and knowing what to lose. This screenplay runs the risk of being generically uplifting, even bland; instead, it has a sharply distinctive flavor, honest pathos and a hint of delightful household magic. Thomas Newman’s sparkling musical score echoes that buoyant tone.
Early on, “Unstrung Heroes” captures a lovely sense of what it means for young Steven Lidz (Nathan Watt) to be happy: watching his mother smoke cigarettes and make pancakes, dancing in the kitchen while Ray Charles sings “You are My Sunshine,” marveling at the persistence with which his father contrives nutty inventions. (One of Sid’s gadgets fills the Lidz kitchen with twinkling stars, which is the perfect visual shorthand for this time in Steven’s life.) Ms. MacDowell, who makes a radiant dying swan, captures the bond between Selma and Steven even in a simple scene that shows mother and son admiring each other’s hands.
Mr. Turturro, an actor not usually given the chance to play domestic roles with such depth of feeling, does a touchingly fine job of conveying Sid’s hidden grief and fear once Selma falls ill. Insisting to Steven and his sister that their mother has “a very bad cold” instead of ovarian cancer, he staves off panic by sustaining a scientist’s restraint. Meanwhile, his antic brothers begin drawing Steven into their web, so deeply that they even wind up renaming him. Franz is a lot more colorful than Steven, they say.
Mr. Richards, of television’s “Seinfeld,” stalks Groucho-like through the film as Danny Lidz, who believes that there are only 8 honest people in the world. (There used to be 12, but 4 were assassinated.) An inspired choice to play Mr. Turturro’s brother, he gives an entertaining comic performance and provides a fine counterpoint for Mr. Chaykin’s Arthur Lidz, a wonderfully serene soul whose pockets are filled with odd artifacts wrapped in tissue paper. When Danny and Arthur take Steven, a k a Franz, to their mother’s grave and observe the Jewish custom of leaving stones as remembrance, it’s clear that Arthur can’t stop at that. He’s already left his mother old records, paperweights, a clock, a picture of Clark Gable and some dusting powder.
Ms. Keaton has her own well-known fondness for unexpected artifacts, and it informs “Unstrung Heroes” in inviting ways. Her film has an orderly, imaginative look that stays lively without intruding on the action. And it’s a look that, beyond the decorative, echoes the film’s idea of how ordinary objects can be made to have meaning. Steven, learning from his uncles, begins making a secret shrine to his mother even before he loses her. In the process, he’s learning that even when hope and science fail us, art survives.
Unstrung Heroes (1995)
Directed by: Diane Keaton
Starring: Andie MacDowell, John Turturro, Michael Richards, Maury Chaykin, Anne De Salvo, Celia Weston, Jack McGee, Candice Azzara, Kendra Krull, Lillian Adams
Screenplay by: Richard LaGravenese
Production Design by: Garreth Stover
Cinematography by: Phedon Papamichael Jr.
Film Editing by: Lisa Zeno Churgin
Costume Design by: Jill M. Ohanneson
Set Decoration by: Larry Dias
Art Direction by: Chris Cornwell
Music by: Thomas Newman
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: September 15, 1995
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