Ulee Jackson (Peter Fonda) is a beekeeper taking care of his granddaughters Penny (Vanessa Zima) and the rebellious Casey (Jessica Biel). His son Jimmy (Tom Wood) calls from prison. He tells him that his wife Helen (Christine Dunford) is in trouble and Ulee needs to rescue her from his old running mates Eddie Flowers and Ferris Dooley. They tell him that their last job is suppose to have an extra $100k and they want their money. Ulee takes the drug addicted Helen home. Penny asks next door neighbor Dr. Connie Hope (Patricia Richardson) for help.Fonda gives a quiet but powerful performance. Ulee is a salt-of-the-earth solid character. His family is a shattered one. Like Victor Nunez's previous movie 'Ruby in Paradise', he has given a perfect showcase for his lead. The story is simple but effective. For all the low world influence, the violence is pretty tame. The movie can feel tame but it has a deeper heart.

I have seen this movie many times, and it gets better each time. The scene when a hive is destroyed and Ulee recovers it is the scene that exposes the parallel themes of the film: keeping his family together, and the bees producing (credited in the end titles). The story has incredible tension, but the film seems almost relaxed; no dramatic music, no fast camera action, but a calm sense of reality. This feeling is accentuated by the beautiful photography. The natural lighting in the grocery store parking lot, and the slightly out-of-focus shot of nurse Hope at the truck with groceries are two shots that just knock me out. The last scene at the prison chokes me up even thinking about it. But with all the pain and trouble, the reward is---honey, Tupelo honey.

"Peter Fonda was never an action star"... So said Roger Ebert. That captures the essence of Fonda's performance, which is also the essence of "Ulee's Gold". There are those actors of past and present who visibly try to get you to notice them - Alec Baldwin, Robin WIlliams, and Marlon Brando are examples. There are those who do not try, and yet they still attract your attention - Gary Cooper, Steve McQueen, Randolph Scott - because of their charisma in what they say and do, regardless of how seldom they say and do it. Then there is the rarest of all actors - those who seem to be trying to get you to NOT notice them. Then, when their time to shine (their "close up", if you will) come along, you not only notice them, but you remember them. The only two actors I have known to do this are Spencer Tracy and Henry Fonda. In "Ulee's Gold" Peter Fonda shows he too has this ability, even if he seldom gets a chance to use it. In viewing this film, I saw much of Henry in Peter's performance. If you were to view "My Darling CLementine" you would also see the parallels in Henry's performance - how he calmly subdues a drunkard who is shooting up a saloon, and the easily Peter calmly walks into a nest of agitated bees. And the way both men act when harm threatens their family - they are calm and patient on the outside, but only until it is time to act. Then, they perform acts of cunning and bravery. Most of the time, they don't seem to be doing much at all. But you must still watch them because when they do something, you don't want to miss it. Henry made a number of exceptional films over a 45 year career - many good, but none wildly phenomenal. Peter mad the most influential film of his generation ("Easy Rider") while still in his 20s and has not come close to that level since. With "Easy Rider", we knew Peter was an icon. With "Ulee's Gold", we discover that he is Henry's son.

Among other attractions, this film gives Peter Fonda the best role he's had in years. I would wish him a few more opportunities like that one, in short order. The best of luck to him. The workday that Ulee spends with his younger granddaughter, his explanations to her about beekeeping, help the audience understand what's going on. And the granddaughter's lectures to the doped-out mother draw a parallel between the integrity of the hive and the mother's re-entry into the family. Also, this movie has a lot of common sense about action sequences. When Ulee was attacked by the two vicious punks, things would have gone horribly wrong if he had turned into Steven Segal and started kicking people through the walls, turning it into an action epic. It would have ripped the fabric of a very realistic story. He outsmarts them instead. He traps the more vicious of the men behind a door and holds his weight against it, while he talks the less stupid one into calming down. Believable. And the same for the resolution at the end. Not a Hollywood feel-good, "everything's OK now" fadeout. But the psychos are incarcerated, Ulee's son has reason to feel optimistic about parole, and the family members are talking to each other. The daughter-in-law may even stay dried out.A very good film, deserving of the widest possible distributioncm