Gwen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) is a romantic dreamer, encouraged by her mother, but she is disappointed in love time and again. Nick (Dylan McDermott) grew up in a dysfunctional family and, consequently, wears no rose colored glasses to look upon life and romance. There is one common denominator between the two of them, they both loved a "Brady Bunch" type show called One Big Happy Family when they were young. The child star of the show, Francesca Lanfield (Sarah Jessica Parker), grew up to be a troubled adult, with drug problems, who now lives on investments that were made for her during her young acting days. Thus, she owns a beautiful old apartment building in Los Angeles, which once housed Louise Brooks, and where Gwen now resides, that she is selling for big bucks. The plan is to raze the building and erect something new. As luck would have it, Nick is the architect of the project and Francesca likes what she sees and the two start a sexually-charged thing. The "luck" continues when Gwen, an author, is assigned to ghost write Francesca's autobiography. Thus, the two of them have connections to Francesca, a happening to add to the string of chance meetings and near misses between Nick and Gwen throughout their lives. As Gwen fights for her beloved building, Nick has second thoughts about his role in its destruction and Francesca remains a petulant, mostly unlovable eccentric, how will the film play out? This is a sweet story with attractive, talented performers but its pace is so slow that some viewers may turn it off. Certainly, Tripplehorn, McDermott, and Parker give nice performances, especially Parker, who makes a believable, mixed-up child star all grown up. Then, too, the L.A. scenery, costumes, and amenities are fine indeed. But, the script, which contains many good ideas and themes, moves along very slowly and the direction is far from snappy as well. Therefore, if you love romantic dramas, especially those that sport beautiful actors, do make time for this one. It has a nice tale to tell, even as it takes what seems like a decade to tell it.
Review of 'Til There Was You
