Ironweed (film)

Adapted to the screen by William Kennedy from his similarly named Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, Ironweed stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, with Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora, Fred Gwynne, Nathan Lane, and Tom Waits in supporting roles.

Francis Phelan, a washed-up and retired baseball player, deserted his family in the 1910s after accidentally dropping his infant son, causing the child's death.

Francis became a vagrant, roaming streets and punishing himself by recalling men he knew who died years earlier in different circumstances.

Eventually, Francis returns to his old family house and tries to make peace with his wife Annie, his son Billy, and his daughter Peg.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep play masterfully off each, but Ironweed's unrelenting bleakness proves to be more monotonous than compelling.

Behind the runny, red-rimmed eyes, the nervous chatter, and the haunted expression, Miss Streep is even more utterly changed than her costar, and she even sings well.

pale blue Victorian house with ornate woodwork
Victorian house, known as the Dillenbeck House, in Slingerlands, NY (outside Albany), used in the film Ironweed .