The Spitfire Grill

10/30/2025

**_After prison, a young woman plants herself in a New England town_** Shot in the late spring of 1995, this is a drama similar to “Heavy,” which was released three months earlier in 1996. Another reference point is “Signs of Life” from seven years prior. While this one resorts to cinematic contrivances in the last act, I favor it over those two (although “Heavy” places a close second). The film successfully brings you into the lives of a circle of people in the hilly countryside. Gene Siskel criticized that these characters are all too “colorful,” but I didn’t see that. They struck me as the typical people you’d find in any pastoral place in the Northeast (or anywhere, for that matter). The story focuses on protagonist Alison Elliott’s relationships with the surely café owner (E