HEART OF STONE

My brother and I have an ongoing "Kevin Costner Debate". I always rent his movies, but I invariably say, "I don't care for Kevin Costner; I think he's a very wooden actor." And then Les will counter with, "But you liked "Dances With Wolves", didn't you?" To which I mumble, "Well, yeah." Then he'll say, "You liked "Bull Durham"--right?" To which I answer, "I saw that because of Susan Sarandon." Next he will bring up "The Big Chill" and "No Way Out". I always quote Dorothy Parker's review of Katharine Hepburn, "She ran the gamut of emotions from A to B," to describe Costner's acting ability.

I rented "Field Of Dreams" because of the "Salingeresque" character played by James Earl Jones. Les watched it first and then Mother, Gerald and I watched it together. In the scene where Kevin Costner realizes that Ray Liotta is his father, Gerald and I both had tears in our eyes. Mother looked at us and said, "I can't believe the two of you BAWLING at a movie!" Gerald said, "Gladys, you must not have had any father issues!" She just tsk-tsked and shook her head.

After we finished the movie, Les came downstairs for our usual movie discussion and he asked Mother how she had enjoyed it and she said, "It was OK but the two of them were bawling like babies!" Les said, "Mom, you'd have to have a heart of stone NOT to cry at "Field of Dreams."