Carole King never worked with Brian Wilson, did she?
I know it is all loosely based, but I found the direct evoking of Brian Wilson to be too much a stretch. He was more clearly in the movie than Carole King.
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MovieChat Forums > Grace of My Heart (1996) Discussion > Carole King never worked with Brian Wils...
No. Carole King did not work with Brian Wilson – and she certainly didn't marry him – which is why I found much of this film perplexing. It places characters inspired by real-life performers into fictional situations. The Phil Spector-inspired character was another puzzler.
The story was worthwhile and the music was excellent, but I found the constant references to real-life people in fictional scenarios very distracting. Still this is worth a 7/10 from me for entertainment value.
Actually the character of Jay could have been based on Gerry Goffin, since like Brian Wilson he also has had a history of mental issues....and he was not only Carole King's song writing partner but he also was her husband and the father of her 2 kids.....Since this movie is loosely based on her.
shareGerry Goffin is one of those people I know of only for his work – which is excellent. I didn't realize he had a history of mental illness and drug abuse. Did he otherwise resemble the character of Jay here? I ask because I don't know.
shareGerry Goffin may be more of a mixture of Jay and the Howard Cazsatt character. Gerry and Carole got married very young after finding out she was pregnant (she was only 17, he was 20 years old). Do not know about the infidelity, but according to Carole's memoir, Gerry did have mental issues that Carole believed to be triggered via some LSD use. Eventually was diagnosed as manic depressive. Even after their divorce, he and Carole still wrote some songs together for several years.
Gerry is still alive - still writing songs, often with his (and Carole's) daughter, Louise Goffin.
I think you're using the wrong term to describe the characters and the movie. This isn't "based on" anything. It's more "inspired by". The characters aren't telling any other story but their own. Yes, we can see where the inspiration comes from, but that's all it is... inspiration. Carole King inspired Denise Waverly, Leslie Gore inspired Kelly Porter, Brian Wilson inspired Jay Phillips, Phil Spector inspired Joel Millner, Gerry Goffen inspired Howard Cazsatt and so on and so forth. Trying to exactly match up the biographies isn't going to work because they aren't going to fit and was never meant to fit.
The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.
Ya, ok, I get the whole "inspired by" Carole King part, and I don't mind that the story doesn't match up to her life, and the "Jay" character being "inspired by" Brian Wilson who wasn't really Carole's husband but was Denice's husband etc,. The part that didn't fit was when she went to the commune. Now, I realize communes were the thing in the late 60's and early 70's, but it was goofy in the movie, and it felt like the thing that did not belong. I was along for the ride and bought the story until then, and I had to lol.
This had the potential to be a great movie, I think. I liked it, but it could have been stronger, and perhaps less weird. The quirky parts I did like were John Turturro's character and Illeana Douglas' character.
Cosmic_Cre^
Excellent post.
Yes; this isn't a documentary obviously, or even a bio-pic.
The characters are all their own (and I love them), set against a backdrop of a very exciting and generative time in music/songwriting, inspired by that and by some very talented artists of those times and what was going on then.
Wonderful flick ~
"There's a band playing on the radio ~ With a rhythm of rhyming guitars"