The one that got away: this movie was made in 1990, but was caught up in the collapse of the Orion film studio and was unreleased till 1994, when its star Jessica Lange won an unexpected Oscar for it. The British distributor was unimpressed and sent it straight to video. Still, Lange gives a tour-de-force turn as the volatile wife of an army scientist (Tommy Lee Jones) who has an affair with his CO (Powers Boothe). The late British director Tony Richardson's raw, emotional and moving film could hardly be better acted, with the mood and atmosphere of Sixties Alabama perfectly captured. The screenplay digresses a tad in the middle, producing a mid-movie slump, but this is a minor quibble in a riveting showcase for great film acting.

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