dna Spalding (Sally Field) and her husband Royce (Ray Baker) live in a quaint home in Waxahachie, Texas, with their two young children Possum (Gennie James) and Frank (Yankton Hatten). The year is 1935; the country is still recovering from the depression, especially in this rural area. But the Spaldings are grateful for what they have.

“Something’s happened to your pa.” When Royce, a policeman, is accidentally shot and killed by a drunk vagrant – little more than a child, really – the death devastates the family. The culprit, a black youth, is detained, tortured, murdered, and strung up to a tree – the kind of horrific yet commonplace mode of justice of the era. It’s of little consolation to Edna; the loss is catastrophic. She has support from many in the community, as well as her sister Margaret Lomax (Lindsay Crouse) and her husband Wayne (Ed Harris), though he’s having an affair with schoolteacher Viola Kelsey (Amy Madigan), who is also married. But picking up the pieces and carrying on with life and making money, especially as she has no work experience beyond rearing children and housekeeping, will be a considerable challenge.

Race and racism are striking issues in Edna’s existence, despite the tragedy that upends her existence having little to do with that specifically; it’s only a coincidence that her white husband’s death was at the hands of a black person. But the setting – both the time period and the location – can’t ignore the potency of historic contentions. It’s in this context that these filmic characters are placed and judged, notably when black drifter Moses (Danny Glover) stops by the Spalding residence looking for work. Financial woes plague everyone, but Edna’s unexpected attitude and heartening generosity set her apart; she’s viewed as ignorant by her peers, but in the world of writer/director Robert Benton’s tale, people’s behaviors tend to define their successes – virtue trumps superficiality. “I know times are hard.”

It might have been enough to dwell on the relationship between Edna and Moses, considering how significant it is in this environment, but “Places in the Heart” ups the ante with additional characters and their dramas, somewhat unrelated to the primary themes. A bank manager’s brother-in-law, Will (John Malkovich) – a blinded war veteran – doesn’t seem to be a necessary complication at first, nor does Wayne’s infidelity. But they’re fascinating components of the human condition; the film is, at times, uninterested in telling an obviously theatrical story as much as it wishes to examine mere survival in a notable, significant period with absorbing personas, not unlike in “Days of Heaven” (a tornado here bears a resemblance to the cleansing fire in that aforementioned work). The pacing is perpetually unhurried, though it never truly feels as if idling.

The performances all around are a tremendous boon to this effort, as is the scripting; amidst crushing poverty, limited potential for the future, personal tragedies, and various threats to maintaining ordinary livelihoods, these characters demonstrate an inspiring perseverance and determination. It’s astonishing that the premise would follow generally good people conducting themselves in laudable ways, rather than the anticipated evils of the atrocities surrounding race relations of the ’30s. Aspects of that intolerance do surface during the finale, but for the most part, the tone is one of gentleness and sweetness, and the highly emotional notion of friendships and cooperation weathering the greatest of societal storms. And the parting shot is not just sensational in its tranquil simplicity, but also entirely profound.

– Mike Massie