The Land of Lincoln in the Age of Eisenhower is the place and setting for this Americana period piece about the cracks behind the imposing facade of everyday middle-class life.
Stylized both as a late-teen romance as well as a coming-of-age story, this 20th Century Fox production boasts an appealing young cast -- Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler, Joanna Going, Billy Crudup, Joaquin Phoenix -- but, other than a quick spin around the boxoffice floor, this ever-thoughtful release never generates enough narrative bounce to kick up its heels and will find itself quickly cut in on.
Admittedly, this Imagine Entertainment production will win some curiosity as a period piece among us geezers who actually grew up there and then, but younger viewers are likely to be deadened by the film's subdued and, ultimately, detached intellectualizing. Worst, the most interesting character -- bad-girl Eleanor (Connelly) -- is dramatically excised after a brief tease appearance. Exit pollsters: Brace for major male displeasure.
Essentially, "Abbotts" is the age-old yarn about the separation of classes in classless United States. In this case, middle-class teenage brothers Jacey (Crudup) and Doug (Phoenix) are alternately bedazzled and baffled by the three rich girls, the Abbotts, who flounce around behind the wealthy facade that their father's file-cabinet-drawer invention has provided them. There's the good girl, Alice (Going), who is engaged to a wealthy guy; baddie Eleanor, who upsets convention; and the third wheel, Pamela (Tyler), who gets off the hook. Throughout, it is Jacey's obsessed musings on the Abbotts that make up both the dramatic and thematic content of the film. A diligent lad who toils summers as a service-station attendant to pay for attending the University of Pennsylvania, Jacey's obsessed with the Abbott family and more than a little conflicted. He both idealizes and loathes them. And, through his first-person voice, we also see both the topside and the underside to the Abbott clan.
What ultimately emerges in this somewhat listless movie is a swept-wing, Tide-y thematic washout as screenwriter Ken Hixon numbingly educates us to the cracks in the family character of our small-town royalty -- namely, the self-made rich folk who live across the tracks. Admittedly, there are some snappy flourishes and wonderfully apt encapsulations of the era, but under Pat O'Connor's direction, the dramatics never really come to life. As Lawrence Welk may have said on his hit Saturday night band show of the time, this one could use some Geritol.
Ultimately, Jacey's dronings lull us down to 16 rpm as the film's drama and theme start to scratch in repetition. The story's lack of iron is due in part to the fact that often Jacey's most incendiary observations have to do with the past (thus, they are only grumbled about) and, as noted, the fact that the Abbott clan's most cataclysmic daughter, Eleanor, is sent off to the sanitarium before she can really stir things up. It's like going to the dance and finding only your English teacher is there, and he's giving his Sinclair Lewis speech on midtown America.
Among the players, Crudup, as the teen obsessed with the Abbotts, is strong. He's a maelstrom of conflicted teen anxieties, while Tyler is particularly engaging as the third Abbott sister. It's Kathy Baker as the boys' stoic, long-suffering mother who gives the film's most layered performance, evincing regret, strength and compassion all at once.
Hats off to the technical team, especially costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers and production designer Gary Frutkoff, for the careful evocation of the '50s. Filmed partially in Petaluma, Calif., with its gorgeous sycamores and eucalyptuses, the film brings a special Mediterranean-ish quality to the Midwest, as do the rolling hills that, perhaps for director O'Connor's benefit, add a special Irish roll to the plains of Illinois. Anyway, it's a far different look than those of us who grew up within a couple of hours of Chicago at the time certainly remember.
INVENTING THE ABBOTTS
20th Century Fox
An Imagine Entertainment production
A Pat O'Connor film
Producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer,
Janet Meyers
Director Pat O'Connor
Screenwriter Ken Hixon
Based on the story by Sue Miller
Executive producers Karen Kehela,
Jack Cummins
Director of photography Kenneth MacMillan
Production designer Gary Frutkoff
Editor Ray Lovejoy
Music Michael Kamen
Costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Sound mixer John Patrick Pritchett
Color/stereo
Cast:
Doug Holt Joaquin Phoenix
Jacey Holt Billy Crudup
Lloyd Abbott Will Patton
Helen Holt Kathy Baker
Eleanor Abbott Jennifer Connelly
Steve Michael Sutton
Pamela Abbott Liv Tyler
Alice Abbott Joanna Going
Joan Abbott Barbara Williams
Peter Vanlaningham Alessandro Nivola
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Stylized both as a late-teen romance as well as a coming-of-age story, this 20th Century Fox production boasts an appealing young cast -- Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler, Joanna Going, Billy Crudup, Joaquin Phoenix -- but, other than a quick spin around the boxoffice floor, this ever-thoughtful release never generates enough narrative bounce to kick up its heels and will find itself quickly cut in on.
Admittedly, this Imagine Entertainment production will win some curiosity as a period piece among us geezers who actually grew up there and then, but younger viewers are likely to be deadened by the film's subdued and, ultimately, detached intellectualizing. Worst, the most interesting character -- bad-girl Eleanor (Connelly) -- is dramatically excised after a brief tease appearance. Exit pollsters: Brace for major male displeasure.
Essentially, "Abbotts" is the age-old yarn about the separation of classes in classless United States. In this case, middle-class teenage brothers Jacey (Crudup) and Doug (Phoenix) are alternately bedazzled and baffled by the three rich girls, the Abbotts, who flounce around behind the wealthy facade that their father's file-cabinet-drawer invention has provided them. There's the good girl, Alice (Going), who is engaged to a wealthy guy; baddie Eleanor, who upsets convention; and the third wheel, Pamela (Tyler), who gets off the hook. Throughout, it is Jacey's obsessed musings on the Abbotts that make up both the dramatic and thematic content of the film. A diligent lad who toils summers as a service-station attendant to pay for attending the University of Pennsylvania, Jacey's obsessed with the Abbott family and more than a little conflicted. He both idealizes and loathes them. And, through his first-person voice, we also see both the topside and the underside to the Abbott clan.
What ultimately emerges in this somewhat listless movie is a swept-wing, Tide-y thematic washout as screenwriter Ken Hixon numbingly educates us to the cracks in the family character of our small-town royalty -- namely, the self-made rich folk who live across the tracks. Admittedly, there are some snappy flourishes and wonderfully apt encapsulations of the era, but under Pat O'Connor's direction, the dramatics never really come to life. As Lawrence Welk may have said on his hit Saturday night band show of the time, this one could use some Geritol.
Ultimately, Jacey's dronings lull us down to 16 rpm as the film's drama and theme start to scratch in repetition. The story's lack of iron is due in part to the fact that often Jacey's most incendiary observations have to do with the past (thus, they are only grumbled about) and, as noted, the fact that the Abbott clan's most cataclysmic daughter, Eleanor, is sent off to the sanitarium before she can really stir things up. It's like going to the dance and finding only your English teacher is there, and he's giving his Sinclair Lewis speech on midtown America.
Among the players, Crudup, as the teen obsessed with the Abbotts, is strong. He's a maelstrom of conflicted teen anxieties, while Tyler is particularly engaging as the third Abbott sister. It's Kathy Baker as the boys' stoic, long-suffering mother who gives the film's most layered performance, evincing regret, strength and compassion all at once.
Hats off to the technical team, especially costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers and production designer Gary Frutkoff, for the careful evocation of the '50s. Filmed partially in Petaluma, Calif., with its gorgeous sycamores and eucalyptuses, the film brings a special Mediterranean-ish quality to the Midwest, as do the rolling hills that, perhaps for director O'Connor's benefit, add a special Irish roll to the plains of Illinois. Anyway, it's a far different look than those of us who grew up within a couple of hours of Chicago at the time certainly remember.
INVENTING THE ABBOTTS
20th Century Fox
An Imagine Entertainment production
A Pat O'Connor film
Producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer,
Janet Meyers
Director Pat O'Connor
Screenwriter Ken Hixon
Based on the story by Sue Miller
Executive producers Karen Kehela,
Jack Cummins
Director of photography Kenneth MacMillan
Production designer Gary Frutkoff
Editor Ray Lovejoy
Music Michael Kamen
Costume designer Aggie Guerard Rodgers
Sound mixer John Patrick Pritchett
Color/stereo
Cast:
Doug Holt Joaquin Phoenix
Jacey Holt Billy Crudup
Lloyd Abbott Will Patton
Helen Holt Kathy Baker
Eleanor Abbott Jennifer Connelly
Steve Michael Sutton
Pamela Abbott Liv Tyler
Alice Abbott Joanna Going
Joan Abbott Barbara Williams
Peter Vanlaningham Alessandro Nivola
Running time -- 107 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 3/14/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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