In my formative years, while I perused all the movie reviews in the various compilations from critics like Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin, I came across a four-star review of a movie called Housekeeping. It stood behind Housesitter, that 1992 romantic comedy starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, which was more relevant to me as a 14-year-old. I didn’t really pay the former any mind until I saw it again earlier this week; I like to watch old Siskel and Ebert reviews to wind down the night. This past weekend, I rewatched Good Morning Vietnam, that Vietnam War comedy starring Robin Williams as an irreverent DJ. After the viewing, I immediately revised an OpEd piece I’m working on to make “good trouble”. Upon reading the description for Housekeeping, I saw the film revolves around an eccentric free spirit. And spoiler alert from the Wikipedia description: she goes on the road with a niece, and there’s no romantic subplot. I could smell “pro-single” here. And, as of this writing, it’s free on YouTube!
The film opens with the suicide of a single mother of two daughters. They’re sent to live with their grandmother and then their aunt, Sylvie. Described as an “itinerant” by the grandmother, Sylvie is the embodiment of a free spirit. She hoards newspapers, daydreams on bus benches, loves riding on freight trains, and lets stray animals stay in her home. Grandma thinks having “family” will give her purpose.
We see Sylvie primarily the through the eyes of her two nieces, Lucille and Ruth. Lucille is destined to become a corporate lawyer or a Stepford wife; naturally, she’s embarrassed by her aunt’s behavior. We do learn from Sylvie that having children “wasn’t in the cards” from Lucille asking, “Why didn’t you have any kids?” She later gets chided by her aunt for asking an impolite question.
It's implied that Sylvie is estranged from her husband. “We’re just not in touch,” Sylvie says. Lucille responds, “I’ll bet you don’t even have a husband.” The way Sylvie plays their character implies that she could be lying to fit in or that she’s escaping from an abusive marriage. I’m betting on the latter; Sylvie’s way too much of an iconoclast to really care about that societal norm. And she was probably young enough to fall for a charming guy who turned out to be a snake. I teach my Creative Writing students about backstory; it doesn’t necessarily have to appear in the final draft of the text, but it drives the motivations of characters. That’s the one I’d create.
Ruth is more of an introvert; while Lucille wants to talk dresses with the other girls, Ruth sits alone, reading books. She may be a future Single at Heart. Sylvie likely is. She doesn’t like to stay in one place and recounts the story of a friend who was lonely. This friend thought she could fix it by marrying an old man and having four kids. True to form, it didn’t fix the form. It may have exacerbated it. Lucille scoffs at this.
By the end, Lucille has gone off to live another family, and the authorities want to remove Ruth from Sylvie’s home. Granted, the piles of newspapers aren’t the best argument for clean living, but there is love in the home. The last shot show Sylvie and Ruth going off on an adventure.
The movie is foursquare in favor of doing your own thing and defying conventionality. Sylvie would fit in with the Community of Single People (CoSP) for sure. Ruth will someday as well.