Mary B. McCann Movies
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Todd Field teams with novelist Tom Perrotta to adapt Perrotta's acclaimed novel concerning the suburban malaise experienced by a handful of small-town individuals whose intersecting lives converge in a variety of surprising, and sometimes ominous, ways. Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson star in a cinematic adaptation that doesn't aim so much to simply reproduce the book for the screen as it does to re-imagine the written word by exploring new possibilities for the characters and situations originally presented in Perrotta's 2004 best-seller. Sarah (Winslet) is a suburban outsider who, unlike the other playground moms, isn't afraid to approach the dreamy but long-absent father whom smitten housewives have taken to calling the "Prom King." Long days at the local community pool with their respective children soon find Sarah becoming acquainted with local husband and father Brad (Patrick Wilson) -- who seems to share in her seething discontentment with life in their quaint commuter town. An English literature major who never envisioned a fate as a soccer mom, Sarah has a growing dissatisfaction with her successful husband (Gregg Edelman) that parallels Brad's increasing frustration with his inability to pass the bar and connect with his wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), a successful documentary filmmaker. It's not long before the dejected pair is meeting for a series of illicit afternoon trysts as their unsuspecting spouses work and their children lie quietly napping. Meanwhile, after the community is riled by the return of a convicted sex offender (Jackie Earle Haley) who leaves the concerned parents scrambling to protect their young ones, an attempt made by Sarah and Brad to legitimize their clandestine relationship by dining together with their respective spouses begins to awaken Kathy's suspicions about the fidelity of her husband. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, (more)
- 2004
The made-for-TV It Must be Love is based on "Rediscovered Love", a chapter in Meant to Be, a book by marital-advice columnists Barry Vissell and Joyce Vissell. Both film and chapter were inspired by the true story of Nancy and Leo Whitmore, a divorce-bound couple who learned the hard way how to truly appreciate their life together--and to truly appreciate life itself--when they trapped in a snowbound camper for a month. As adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart), the film stars real-life married couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen as George and Clem Gazelle, who labor under the misapprehension that just because they are being "amicable" and "civilized" about their impending divorce, their split-up will be a happy one with no unpleasant side effects for their children. All this changes when George and Clem are trapped in their camper by a freak Main snowstorm. As they hope and pray for rescue, the couple begins to ponder the reasons for their breakup, and wonder if perhaps they should have given their marriage a second chance. As the days turn into weeks, and despite their ever-diminishing health, the Gazelles carry on lively domestic debates in their "Divorce Camper", concluding at last that if they must die (which may indeed happen at any moment), they would much rather die together than apart. One of the highest-rated TV movies of its year, It Must Be Love was seen February 15, 2004, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2000
A wealthy patroness of the arts is found murdered in her apartment, her hands severed from her body. The subsequent investigation turns up evidence that the motive for the murder may have been a painting, which bears a startling resemblance to the scene of the crime. Chief among the suspects is the victim's newest protégé -- who has a history of violence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
