Other Titles • Desert Bloom • In der Hitze von Nevada (1987)
Synopses for Desert Bloom (1986)
1.
A quartet of fine performances support this bittersweet story about coming of age in the shadow of the atomic bomb. Rose Chismore (Annabeth Gish, in her movie debut) is a shy girl measuring out her teenage days in Las Vegas, Nevada, circa 1950. Both Rose and Las Vegas are on the cusp of change--the girl is experiencing the first awkward pangs of maturity thanks to a local boy, while the town is suddenly abuzz with scientists en route to the nuclear testing facilities at nearby White Sands and Alamogordo. But at Rose's home, life is at a standstill. Her stepfather (Jon Voight) is a traumatized World War II vet whose drinking and nightmares are leading to physical abuse, and her mother (JoBeth Williams) labors under a gambling addiction that threatens to tear down her sunny veneer. Rose finds herself sitting at both a physical and emotional ground zero. All that's needed is a spark to set off an explosion--which comes in the curvy form of Aunt Starr (Ellen Barkin), a brassy former beauty queen who's come for a quickie divorce and, hopefully, a new husband, just in time for the first A-bomb test. Desert Bloom is a gently moving film about growth, change, and maturity, for better and worse. It's buoyed by the strength of its leads; Gish, in particular, is a revelation. A fine sleeper for the whole family, with only a smattering of language and violence. Corr later wrote the similarly unsung Prefontaine. --Paul Gaita
2.
Family secrets threaten to destroy a struggling nuclear family in the dawn of the 1950's Atomic Age in this coming-of-age memoir.
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