How to make an American quilt

In a society which seems to be constantly beating the anti-marriage drum, this is a film worth seeing.
In the opening scenes Winona Ryder (Fin) begins to talk to us. Her boyfriend is knocking down walls, revamping the house in which they hope to live, while she is struggling to write her thesis. The noise is too much for her studies, so she decides to leave and spend the summer in the rural setting of the home of her grandmother and great aunt. She needs to work. But Fin's boyfriend senses that perhaps this is not the only reason. He is right. She is thinking through her future.
In grandmother's big country house a circle of women meet to spend time making a quilt. They come every day throughout the summer. The American quilt is patchwork. Each woman makes her own patches, each one embroidered or patterned in some way to make it significant for her. Then the patches are sewn together. The task provides a warm lazy atmosphere for gossip and bickering. But our heroine panics as they tell her the quilt is for her forthcoming marriage.

Men behaving badly

The film works like this American quilt. As the conversations unfold, each of the women reveals the story of their own love-affair or marriage. The majority of the women are getting on in years, but they love to tell their stories (mostly disastrous in various ways). Grandma had an affair with great aunt's husband in her vulnerability as her own husband is dying in hospital.
Mainly the stories feature downtrodden women who were done the dirty on by men behaving badly, and then were left alone to look after the children. However, the story of the black girl (played by Maya Angelou), tells of how, already pregnant, she listened to her mother's advice to follow a black crow which led her to a husband. In between the stories, Fin makes the acquaintance of a local hunk who takes her out. She is thinking through whether she really wants to marry her boyfriend. All the questions are asked: 'Why stay with one person, etc.?'
So, shaping up like an advert for the most pungent form of virulent feminism, I was taken by surprise by the film's unexpected, though perhaps somewhat corny conclusion. Let's just say it involves the boyfriend and a black crow!
But as a Christian, I came out of the cinema feeling I had seen something worthwhile. Its moral was really that marriage is better for women than the emptiness, loneliness and eventual dumping, entailed in most more casual relationships. Yet the great point is, if you are going to get married, you need to be careful whom you choose. Seems like pretty good pre-marriage counselling to me.

How to make an American quilt

Men behaving badly

Nici Barnes

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