Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring Reviews

Although modern audiences may find it a bit dated and somewhat familiar, Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring will probably still strike chords with many people who grew up in or lived through the 1960s. The decades since this was produced have seen dysfunctional family movies proliferate, and there's been more than a little bit of attention paid to the social upheavals of the "hippie" era, so Spring is not as fresh as it once was. But the film still is powerful and earns points for spreading the blame around: it's about as critical of the hippie lifestyle as it is of the suburban one. Some viewers will feel that it's too critical, that there are good points to both of these lifestyles that the film ignores, and that's valid. But Spring is more concerned with viewing the damage that many people, young and old, experienced at the time, and it does so in a laudable fashion. Granted, many of the daring visuals are a bit "quaint" now, and the "ribbon forming the word 'Happy'" segment feels a bit off the wall now; but overall, Spring is quite involving. It's also noteworthy as the performance that enabled Sally Field to start shedding her Gidget image, and she does very well her -- as, for that matter, do Eleanor Parker and Jackie Cooper as her parents and David Carradine as her boy friend. A bonus: a young Linda Ronstadt's vocals on the title tune.