I'm referring to Dolly Parton getting away from Gary Busey who is obviously suffering from a mental illness that gives his personality multiple sides. Loving at one moment, violent and judgmental the next, especially after she goes out of her way to allure him with a night of passion, trying to strangle her after accusing her of being unladylike. The script does not present Busey as a one dimensional monster, and it's easy to see why Dolly's character could love him and try to stand by him as long as possible. His past is explained in a scene with his father whose abuse definitely had a negative impact on him. Having watched her ailing, elderly mother go through the same kind of abuse, the determined Dolly vows she'll never be like that. His actions leads to a shocking twist that reveals a lot of people had reasons to hate him.
A great cameo by Willie Nelson adds to the songs Dolly gets to sing as a rising country star, although it seems bizarre that her character would take so long to become a success. Dolly gets to stretch past playing basically herself, strong in scenes where she stands up to Busey. As her singing partner and close friend, Ray Benson is excellent, unable to step in and get Dolly to leave, knowing that she's going to do the most in her power to make it all work out even though relationships like this rarely do. So you get a view of abuse from the sides of the perpetrator and the victim, both of whom need different kinds of help to deal with their problems. Usually films of this nature only show one side, but the strength of this film doesn't go for the black or white but the grays in the middle.
A great cameo by Willie Nelson adds to the songs Dolly gets to sing as a rising country star, although it seems bizarre that her character would take so long to become a success. Dolly gets to stretch past playing basically herself, strong in scenes where she stands up to Busey. As her singing partner and close friend, Ray Benson is excellent, unable to step in and get Dolly to leave, knowing that she's going to do the most in her power to make it all work out even though relationships like this rarely do. So you get a view of abuse from the sides of the perpetrator and the victim, both of whom need different kinds of help to deal with their problems. Usually films of this nature only show one side, but the strength of this film doesn't go for the black or white but the grays in the middle.