Starring Peter Fonda and Patricia Richardson Directed by Victor Nunez Rated R, with profanity and violence Running time 118 minutes Jack gives this film a rating of 8 out of 10

(June 27, 1997) -- If you've written off actor Peter Fonda as a one-hit wonder, remembering only his cycle-riding Captain America in Easy Rider, it is time to adjust your thinking.

Thirty years later, a mature Fonda contributes precious mettle to Ulee's Gold. He plays a middle-aged recluse who awakens to his responsibilities as a father. And with his powerful restrained portrayal, the 57-year-old Fonda may be ushering in a new career as a more-than-capable character actor.

Fonda plays Ulysses Jackson, a beekeeper who works the marshes of Florida's Panhandle. A quiet recluse, Jackson is a former Vietnam veteran who has become embittered by the death of his wife and the collapse of his family.

His son, Jimmy, is serving time for armed robbery. His daughter-in-law, Helen, left home two years earlier to support a drug habit through prostitution. Ulee has since cared for their children, his granddaughters, Penny and Casey.

The "Gold" of the title presumably applies to the honey Ulee collects each year from his bees. (Van Morrison's Tupelo Honey reinforces the idea over the end credits.) And part of the charm of Fonda's portrayal is the casual ease he displays in several scenes among the hives and honey.

But the true gold in Ulee's life is his family. Despite a melodramatic crime undertow, Ulee's Gold is essentially about fatherhood and family. The story revolves around the attempts by a reluctant Ulee to bring Helen back home where she can get clean and be restored to her daughters.

But his efforts entangle him with two thugs -- Eddie and Ferris -- who were once Jimmy's partners in crime. The money from the robbery has been buried, and they think Ulee can help them retrieve it. To encourage him, they hold his granddaughters at gunpoint.

Thanks to Fonda's quiet, but deeply etched portrayal, Ulee's Gold never degenerates into formula melodrama. He and director-writer Victor Nunez keep the focus where it belongs -- on Ulee's integrity and his sense of responsibility for himself and for his family.

And though Nunez populates the film with names from ancient Homer -- Ulysses, Helen and Penelope -- he doesn't stretch to turn his script into a pretentious updating of The Odyssey in the Florida swamps. Beyond the obvious theme of "a journey" (both outward and inward), the characters in Ulee's Gold have little in common with their Greek predecessors.

The film stands on its own -- and its strength comes from Peter Fonda's heartfelt performance.