Intimate Portrait: Jessica Tandy

The intertwined careers of "the first couple of American theater" are relived in this documentary that's really an Intimate Portrait of two people--Jessica Tandy, of course, but also husband Hume Cronyn. Daughter Tandy Cronyn is a good interview, animatedly filling in the picture of her mother, who died at age 85 in 1994. It begins to feel more like a career summation rather than a personal retrospective as the biography runs through Jessica Tandy's acting achievements, which stretch back to 1940 (and starring Shakespearean stage roles with Laurence Olivier) and extend beyond her Oscar-winning role in 1989's Driving Miss Daisy. Some personal details are slipped in--the couple bought an island in the Bahamas and trekked to Africa--but the fate of a daughter from Tandy's first marriage is never revealed. Sweet footage from 1994 shows the couple accepting the first Tony Award for lifetime achievement. "We were a marvelous team and greatly blessed," says Cronyn. And they had a 52-year run. --Valerie J. Nelson Amazon.com