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Excellent, Without a doubt!!

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

I found this movie on DVD at my public library, I watched it at home. The Great Depression in the USA lasted from 1929 to 1939. This movie is set in 1938 Albany, New York, near the end of the Depression but with most communities in a depressed economic state.Jack Nicholson is Francis Phelan, a drifter who has been away from home for some years. He returns right at Halloween, he meekly looks up his wife and two young adult children, but he calmly states that he doesn't plan to stay.His friend with benefits for some years is Meryl Streep as Helen, former singer and entertainer who now was a shell of her former self. In a non-glamorous role Carroll Baker is Francis' faithful wife Annie Phelan, she is surprised when he shows up but treats him with compassion.This is just a slice of life story, bums and drifters doing what they can to sometimes find a little work, maybe get a sandwich here or visit the soup kitchen there, find an abandoned car to sleep in for the night without freezing. I didn't find the story itself very enjoyable, it is a tragic story, but I found it worthwhile for Nicholson and Streep.

I, like many others I assume, was drawn to this film by it's list of actors. With a cast like that it's gotta be great, right? As it turns out, not so much.The story here is simply not THAT interesting to warrant a run time of almost two and a half hours. A baseball player accidentally kills his child and then, in his grief, abandons his family and becomes a bum. Years later he goes back to see his wife and is welcomed home with (mostly) open arms. And things really don't develop much more than that. So A-listers, Jack Nicholson and Merrill Streep flounder around a gloomy set and try to act their way to an epic film, but they just don't have the material to work with. So you end up with a very drawn out, dreary, and unavoidably BORING movie. It's certainly not worth the time investment when there's no payoff.

Even with the likes of Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, this loser doesn't click with me. Like watching rich people going out and pretending they're hobos. Slow moving and almost predictable. Nicholson seems to be wandering around in this one trying to find something to do with his role. Streep, with her usual facial maneuvering overdoes it. She fidgets, she shakes, she sings, she has fits here and there and seems to be going nowhere with her character. I got so bored watching this I kept jumping ahead to find something worthwhile to watch. But always coming to these two wandering.I don't know what this film is supposed to do. What message it is saying. For certainly the stars didn't know. Sorry, I guess I am the only one that found these two, supposedly great actors, flopped in this silly movie.

Ironweed is the story of a drifter (Jack Nicholson), who spends Halloween in his hometown after not returning for more than a decade.Why did Francis Phelan (Nicholson), not return to his hometown? Well, year before he returned, he was holding his baby, and...he dropped it. Not really more is said, except that the baby died.Phelan's wife Helen Archer (Meryl Streep) isn't as angry that he's back as you'd think she'd be.The movie is really about the Halloween night between Helen, Francis, and others.If you like Nicholson, or Streep. You'll like this.