Now Showing: The Giver of Stars

 

The Giver of Stars

Genre: Drama/Historical

Director: Lorene Scafaria

Writer: Abbie Q

Based on the novel by Jojo Moyes

Cast: Emma Watson, Carrie Coon, Cary Elwes, Freddie Stroma, Jack Quaid, Gustaf Skarsgard, Janelle Monae, McCabe Slye, Stephanie Beatriz, Lauren Cohan, Hunter Schafer, Melissa McBride, Tim Blake Nelson, David Ajala, Elisabeth Shue

Plot: December 20th, 1937

Margery “Marge” O’Hare (Carrie Coon) and her horse Charley go on a ride through open plains till they’re stopped by Clem McCullough (McCabe Slye). He attacks her, but she strikes him with a book, resulting in Clem’s head landing on a rock. Marge stares in shock and runs away through the open plains as the wind blows heavy and stiff.

Three months earlier

At a town meeting in Baileyville, Kentucky, it’s informed that the Works Progress Administration has released funds to start a traveling library due to Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s interest in literacy and learning. Margery O’Hare and Beth Pinker (Lauren Cohan) will be riding horses around the county to deliver books. Isabelle “Izzy” Brady (Stephanie Beatriz) is volunteered by her mother, who strongly endorses the project.

Alice Van Cleve (Emma Watson) volunteers as well, despite her husband’s protests. Alice is Englishwoman who is dissatisfied with her small-town life in Baileyville with her husband, Bennett (Freddie Stroma). She married him to get away from her controlling parents. Bennett and his father, Mr. Geoffrey Van Cleve (Cary Elwes), run the Hoffman mines. The other women in town, such as Peggy Foreman (Hunter Schafer), dislike Alice for being foreign. Alice is assigned a little mare named Spirit to ride. The librarians ride around encouraging people to read, despite the resistance of Jim Horner (Tim Blake Nelson), who insists he’s not interested. Frederick Guisler (Jack Quaid) helps to manage the main library, which is at his cabin.

Bennett and Alice’s relationship continues to be rocky, though Bennett’s father keeps asking them about having kids. Peggy Foreman continues to flirt with Bennett. Izzy, who walks with a limp (from polio) and needs a leg brace, shows up a few weeks later to join them as promised. She doesn’t want to be there at first but soon comes around. She’s given Patch to ride, and they end up removing her brace so she can ride.

Sven Gustavsson (Gustaf Skarsgard) is Margery’s beau and a lovely man who works as the town’s fire captain. Sven wants her to marry him. However, Margery’s late father was abusive, dying in a drunken gunfight, which has made her distrust men. Her brother left because of it, who later died in an accident the same day. Her sister married a man who was also abusive. Her father gave the family a bad name.

Despite the initial opposition, the demand for books has grown over time. Alice helps Kathleen Bligh (Melissa McBride) by reading to her chronically ill husband. She’s also pleasantly surprised when Jim Horner asks for more books. He apologizes for being crude before, which he attributes to grieving his wife. They need more help, so Margery asks Sophia Kenworth (Janelle Monae), who’s had formal librarian training and experience, to join them to man the main library. Sophia is a black woman who taught Margery to read, lending her books growing up. Margery also hears from Sophia’s brother, William (David Ajala), recently injured in the mines, about Hoffman’s plan to create new mines to destroy many homes.

Sophia gets the library organized and categorized systematically. Meanwhile, Margery discreetly writes letters to neighbors not to sign anything to allow the Hoffman Mining Company to create new mines under their properties. Sven also reports to Mr. Van Cleve the dangerous conditions in the mines but is brushed off. Kathleen's husband passes away due to a sickness relating to the mines, and the town pays its respects.

Tex Lafayette, a famous singer/cowboy, has a show and the whole town attends. Alice gets sprayed by a skunk on the way, but Fred helps to clean her up. However, three drunk boys later break in, demanding to know why a black person works at the library. Fred scares them off, but soon the town has a meeting debating Sophie’s employment there. Mr. Van Cleve is against it, but Margery mentions how he employs black people at the mine but lists them as mulatto, or mixed race. He demands Alice quit the packhorse librarians at home, but she refuses.

A little blue book called Married Love contains sex advice discreetly circulated. After Alice reads it, she tries to seduce Bennett, mentioning the book, but he rebuffs her and shames her for it. Sophia accuses Bennett of being gay, which makes him storm off upset. Meanwhile, it’s clear Frederick’s crush on Alice’s growing.

One day, Marge shows up upset and looking into getting a gun. She’s worried that Clem McCullough is coming after her again, and Sven’s furious. It’s implied the scene when she was attacked has just occurred.

Mr. Van Cleve is convinced that Margery is making him look bad at the town meeting, obstructing the new mines, and asking the governor to shut the library down. The governor is reluctant, but Mr. Van Cleve brings up the blue book, which Bennett presumably told him about. Meanwhile, the late Mrs. Van Cleve had a collection of porcelain dolls, and Alice takes two to give to Jim Horner’s daughters. When Mr. Van Cleve finds out, he flips out, Alice talks back to him. He brings up the blue book, starts hitting her and calls her a whore. Distraught, Alice leaves and goes to Margery’s house.

When Fred sees Alice’s injuries, he is upset. He notes that when his wife, Selena, was cheating on him, others told him he’d teach her a lesson, but he wouldn’t do it. Bennett comes by, and Alice tells him it’s over. Mr. Van Cleve even offers her money to return, which she declines.

When Izzy’s father hears of them circulating Married Love (known to be a scandalous book), he wants her to drop out. In retaliation, Mr. Van Cleve calls a town meeting where he advocates shutting the library down. Meanwhile, Beth takes a spill and hurts her arm, which puts her out of commission, and Alice’s injuries would invite too many questions for her to ride. Thankfully, Kathleen offers to ride.

When even the pastor can’t convince Alice to go back, it’s soon rumored that Mr. Van Cleve cannot maintain control of his household. The governor tells him that he should be focused on his mines and his household, not the librarians. The comments set Mr. Van Cleve off, and despite Bennett’s protests, Mr. Van Cleve shoots Margery’s dog.

That winter, Margery is demoralized by her beloved dog’s death, and Alice starts practicing shooting a gun. By March, Beth is healed. Sophie encourages Alice to allow things to happen with Fred, but Alice knows what the town would say. Sophie also tells Alice about her ex-husband who was shot dead in the streets for no reason.

When rain threatens to flood the town, the librarians ride to alert the town and stop to help Mrs. Cornish with her mule along the way. Alice and Fred try to save the books. Marge goes to help Sophia and William, but their place is flooding fast. Meanwhile, Izzy disobeys her mother and takes her parents’ car and together they save three kids. When Margery gets back, Sven holds her and realizes she is pregnant, which is why she’s been pushing him away. Later, Sophia and Sven tell Marge they need to marry for the baby’s sake. 

Afterward, Margery checks on Sophia and realizes from the black marks that the coal slurry from a broken dam wrecked Sophia’s house and all the houses in that area, not the flood. Marge confronts Mr. Van Cleve about it in a diner, dropping sludge on his plate until Sven leads her out. Alice, meanwhile, has been romantic with Fred, but they are not letting their relationship get physical.

In April, the body of Clem McCullough is found with his head bashed in and a bloodied copy of Little Women nearby.

Mr. Van Cleve insists to the Sheriff that Margery must be guilty, and she is soon arrested for Clem’s murder. Sven tells the other librarians about what happened with Clem and Margery, with her hitting him with the book in self-defense. Alice visits Marge in jail every day, bringing fresh cornbread, but the weeks pass by without progress. Meanwhile, Alice’s parents have accepted that her marriage is over and are letting her return home. She tells Fred she’ll return to England after Marge’s trial.

When Margery, still in jail, goes into labor, Alice fetches Sofia. A little girl is born named Virginia Alice O’Hare. The women all visit continuously and try to arrange slightly cleaner conditions for Marge. Marge is delighted by the baby, but as her trial nears, it’s clear she’s looking at 20 years or death. She hands off the baby to a heartbroken Sven and stops accepting visitors.

The town is in a frenzy leading up to the trial, and the local news is filled with lurid headlines. Outside the jailhouse, the other librarians sing a song to strengthen her. Margery pleads not guilty. As the trial progresses, Margery looks bleak as they confirm his death from blunt force trauma.

The librarians ride together to see the daughters that weekend, and Verna McCullough (Elisabeth Shue) reluctantly lets them in. Bennett finds Alice and discreetly suggests that she talk to McCullough’s daughters, who had refused to cooperate with the Sheriff. He also Alice bids farewell, knowing she is leaving.

Hops forward to Monday morning at the courthouse. The defense counsel begins making a closing statement, noting that the library book’s main link could have been placed near the body long after it was dead. Then, Kathleen interrupts with a witness, Verna McCullough.

Verna, who hated her abusive father, and Clem testifies that on December 20th, Marge was attacked by Clem. Clem had left to return a library book, Little Women, and never made it home. The physician then was called to testify again. He confirmed that his injuries could have been caused by him simply slipping and falling on the book as well. With that, the judge orders that Marge be released.

Before Alice leaves, she confides in Fred about her failed marriage. He’s surprised but also delighted when he finds out she and Bennett never consummated their marriage. He shows her in the books that it means she’s not married in the eyes of God, and it means she can get the marriage annulled.

Sven and Margery get married in late October and get a new puppy two months later. Fred and Alice marry a month later. Sophia and her brother move to Louisville, where she takes a job at a colored library. Kathleen begins to spend time with Jim Horner and his girls. Beth declares she will travel to India and implies she was secretly brewing moonshine on the side to save up money. Izzy successfully pursues her singing career and even does a duet with Tex Lafayette.

Bennett also marries Peggy Foreman, with the rest of the librarians well-wishes. However, Peggy shows up at the library later, asking for the little blue book.