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WhIty Fro. Prose, WechidByÏNÃ"erbWr~ ~&Pg 'Qualified' review Movie crities have the need to be "instantly right." It goes like this: Day 1: Movie release date. Critie sits through a special screening, then races to word processor so paying movie-goers who see the movie will know if they like the show or not. Day 2: The hastily written review appears in papers. Day 3: The critic wakes up in a bright and cheerful mood. Maybe that movie wasn't so bad after ail. But it's already been released on video. A delightful story, delicately told, has been impaled on the collective bile of minor-talent critics. Having thus expounded, I would now like to review a rnovie first seen at the Champlain Cinemas on Christmas Eve, 1989. The movie: Prancer. The reasons for the delay in the review is two-fold. In the first place, by the time I first saw the movie in '89 it had already achieved a small niche in the Christmas mnarket. In the second place, reviewing a Christmas movie after Christmas tends te be anticli- mactic. Having thus had five years te mull the movie over, and through the modemn miracle of video having had four hundred and ninety-six viewings, I now feel more qualified te render judgment. The story so far: a few days before Christmas, eight-year-old Jessica finds a wounded reindeer. It is Prancer. She nurses it back te health. Hem belief also nurses back to health a host of emotional cripples: her father, an aging vet, a crotchety old lady neighbor and a whole village of otherwise nice people. If 1 were also to mention that Jessica had also lost her mother to an unnamed inalady, you niight begin te wince. Maudlin, trite, contrived. Yeah. Except it doesn't corne out that way. Right from the start, director John Hancock (that's right!) has given the production a timeless feel: from the amateurish Christmas pageant in the opening scene (using real people fmom the real village of Three Oaks) he parades believable people befome us. The young widowed father, played by Sam Elliott, ants and fumes like ail the fathers of my rural childhood. A couple of times I could swear he is a cousin, snuffling and snorting through stuffed sinuses. The aging vet, played by Abe Vigoda, timed from being up ail night with a pregnant cow, with a sick wife at home to look aftem, reacts as you would expect. Until Jessica stabs him in the heart with one delicious plea. A delightful surprise is Cloris Leachman as the eccentric rich village lady who "used to win ail the Christmas lighting contests. People came from miles around te see them." Soinething in her life had burned out; we are neyer told what. The wmitem (Greg Taylor) does not belabour the background of all the wounded adults. They'me just props te support Jessica's fantasy. The cinematography strikes just the right balance between the rural dreariness and Jessica's fantasy wold. The brutal cold of windswept cornrields wilI send shivers through your britches. The Mifies farm kitchen, the outhouse by the barn, the septic drain- pipe in the corner of the stair landing, the sunlight filtering through the barn in December: it is exactly right. This blend of the daily grind with Jessica's magical fantasies hooked me. By the end, we want te believe, in the best way, that this now healthy deer really is Praner and eally wiil fly. And if you can't remeM- DEDICATION 0F CROSS AT LEGION PL(Yr, GROVESIDE CEMvIERY, Archdeacon Warren of York Diocese, Anglican Church of Canada (at left dedicated this wooden cross, which was replaced by a stone cross on Nov. Leç1ion plot in Groveside Cemetery, estaiblished in 1933, contain s nearly U T.,cninri1,ulin Rev E. Ralnh Adve. 110 YEARS AGO From the Wednesday, November 7, 1984 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS " Corridor Area Ratepayers' Association is opposing the establishment of a Go Transit maintenance yard on Champlain Avenue. " Seventeen fire alarms were receivecd by the Fire Department on Hallowe'en night. " Whitby recipients of Ontario's Bicentennial Medai are: Gertrude Drew, Byron Harder, John Dryden, Benny LaHaye, Harry Inkpen, William Vaughan and Gwen Mowbray. " Ribblesdaie Drive Co-op residents want a crosswalk at Manning Road. 35 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, November 5 1959 edition of the WIIITBY WEEKýLY NEWS " An unused building at the sewage treatment plant is Whitby's new dog pound. " Brock Street will be repaved.from Dundas Street to Front Street this <ail. " Forty building lots north of the CPR tracks were released by the town council for construction of homes. " An Officiai Plan for Whitby is not ready for introduction this year. 125 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, November 4, 1869 edition of the WHITBY CHRONICLE " Membership in the Whitby Mechanics' Institute library costs one dollar a year. " The School Board is asking that enough members attend the next meeting to form a uorum because the techers' salaries have not ben paid for a ronth. " two-dollar reward is being ofTred for the return of a gold locket lost at the Whidtby Faîl Fair. " John Rice is selling his hlacksmith shop on Brock street. .4 ..*..... LJLY 26p,1936 behind cross) 1, 1959. The '0 burials. At %il a.