Editorial Review

This well-acted drama won the Audience award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, causing a festival ruckus when several distributors entered a bidding war in response to the movie's positive buzz. When the movie was finally released, audience and critical response provided a sudden reality check: the movie's good to a point, but hardly worth the fuss it received at Sundance. Packing a miniseries' worth of melodrama into 117 minutes, the story centers on a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliott) who served prison time for manslaughter and arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of beginning a new life. She works as a waitress in the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and precious little tolerance for the grill's regular customers, who cast their suspicions on Percy's mysterious past. The plot unfolds when Hannah holds a $100-per-entry essay contest to find a new owner for the grill. There's ample mystery surrounding the collected money, a local hermit who's really Hannah's shell-shocked Vietnam veteran son, and circumstances that lead the locals to adopt a lynch-mob mentality at Percy's expense. By the time Percy is nearly drowning in a raging river, Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Original recording reissued
• NTSC

Reviews (44)

Awesome
This is what I would refer to as a sleeper film. It grabs your interest from the very beginning and keeps it throughout the entire film.Good acting and great storyline.

Better than expected!
This is a meaningful movie.It brings out the emotions, makes one think about relationships and judgement.Worth watching with a tissue!

A quiet, satisfying movie
The Spitfire Grill is a very well written and acted tear-jerker.A young girl, just released from prison, decides to settle down in the quiet New England village of Gillead.The residents initially are downright unfriendly to her, and their transformation is predictable, but achieved in an unpredictable and pleasing way.The Spitfire Grill is like that:certain outcomes are required in this kind of movie, but the way the story gets to them is surprising and satisfying.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

This well-acted drama won the Audience award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, causing a festival ruckus when several distributors entered a bidding war in response to the movie's positive buzz. When the movie was finally released, audience and critical response provided a sudden reality check: the movie's good to a point, but hardly worth the fuss it received at Sundance. Packing a miniseries' worth of melodrama into 117 minutes, the story centers on a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliott) who served prison time for manslaughter and arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of beginning a new life. She works as a waitress in the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and precious little tolerance for the grill's regular customers, who cast their suspicions on Percy's mysterious past. The plot unfolds when Hannah holds a $100-per-entry essay contest to find a new owner for the grill. There's ample mystery surrounding the collected money, a local hermit who's really Hannah's shell-shocked Vietnam veteran son, and circumstances that lead the locals to adopt a lynch-mob mentality at Percy's expense. By the time Percy is nearly drowning in a raging river, Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (44)

Awesome
This is what I would refer to as a sleeper film. It grabs your interest from the very beginning and keeps it throughout the entire film.Good acting and great storyline.

Better than expected!
This is a meaningful movie.It brings out the emotions, makes one think about relationships and judgement.Worth watching with a tissue!

A quiet, satisfying movie
The Spitfire Grill is a very well written and acted tear-jerker.A young girl, just released from prison, decides to settle down in the quiet New England village of Gillead.The residents initially are downright unfriendly to her, and their transformation is predictable, but achieved in an unpredictable and pleasing way.The Spitfire Grill is like that:certain outcomes are required in this kind of movie, but the way the story gets to them is surprising and satisfying.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa    3. Movie   

Features

• Color
• NTSC

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Editorial Review

This well-acted drama won the Audience award at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival, causing a festival ruckus when several distributors entered a bidding war in response to the movie's positive buzz. When the movie was finally released, audience and critical response provided a sudden reality check: the movie's good to a point, but hardly worth the fuss it received at Sundance. Packing a miniseries' worth of melodrama into 117 minutes, the story centers on a young woman named Percy (Alison Elliott) who served prison time for manslaughter and arrives in a small town in Maine with hopes of beginning a new life. She works as a waitress in the Spitfire Grill, owned by Hannah (Ellen Burstyn), whose gruff exterior conceals a kind heart and precious little tolerance for the grill's regular customers, who cast their suspicions on Percy's mysterious past. The plot unfolds when Hannah holds a $100-per-entry essay contest to find a new owner for the grill. There's ample mystery surrounding the collected money, a local hermit who's really Hannah's shell-shocked Vietnam veteran son, and circumstances that lead the locals to adopt a lynch-mob mentality at Percy's expense. By the time Percy is nearly drowning in a raging river, Read more

Features

• Color
• Original recording reissued
• NTSC

Reviews (44)

Awesome
This is what I would refer to as a sleeper film. It grabs your interest from the very beginning and keeps it throughout the entire film.Good acting and great storyline.

Better than expected!
This is a meaningful movie.It brings out the emotions, makes one think about relationships and judgement.Worth watching with a tissue!

A quiet, satisfying movie
The Spitfire Grill is a very well written and acted tear-jerker.A young girl, just released from prison, decides to settle down in the quiet New England village of Gillead.The residents initially are downright unfriendly to her, and their transformation is predictable, but achieved in an unpredictable and pleasing way.The Spitfire Grill is like that:certain outcomes are required in this kind of movie, but the way the story gets to them is surprising and satisfying.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie