Cast : Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Elane Stritch
Directed By: Joan Chen
This movie wasn’t a big hit at the box office world-wide, but still is among my all time favorites. The screenplay and performances by the lead actors strung the cords of my heart and left a silent and thoughtful impact on me.
Will Keane (Richard Gere), is a 48 year old restaurant owner. Successful, handsome and sought after by many a woman. He also has a reputation, of being a choosy womanizer. He seems to have commitment-phobia, with a history of a divorce and broken relationships.
When he sees Charlotte Fielding (Winona Ryder) at her birthday party at his restaurant, he is instantly attracted to her. Though she is half his age, old enough to be his daughter, there is something about her that is very pulling for Will. He walks up to the table to wish her a very courteous happy birthday to find her sitting with her friends and her grandmother, Dolly (Elane Stritch). Now, he discovers what was so familiar. Charlotte’s mother was Will’s ex-lover before she died. Complicated start!!
This, though, doesn’t stop Will from thinking about her. What he doesn’t know is that Charlotte is also secretly attracted to him and has been his admirer since her childhood. (Who wouldn’t be an admirer of Richard Gere. I’ve always found him so attractive and am totally crazy about him even now when he’s almost equal in age to my grandfather!!) anyway…
So, Will calls her up casually and discovers that she has a really creative mind which she applies to designing unusual hats. He asks her to design one for his date to a fancy dinner. She agrees, delighted to do a “favor” for Will. Later, quite predictably but yet excitingly, Will calls her to inform that his date has cancelled on him. He asks her for another favor, and they end up on the dance floor of the fancy dinner party. That kindles the romance between them.
On one occasion, when Will is tempted to bail out with his usual line about “not promising forever,” Charlotte responds with reasons of her own about why she feels this relationship can’t last forever: she’s dying because she has a heart neuroblastoma. While Charlotte finds herself more than just attracted to Will, what she doesn’t know is that he was probably looking for another short, no-strings attached time. Grandmother even tries to warn Will to leave her alone on account of the fact that she is “really sick”.
One fine evening, Charlotte comes home soaked in tears, after learning that Will has slept with someone else, Dolly divulges the details of the past about her mom and Will that she had kept from her so far. Charlotte gets angry with her for not trying to “protect” her especially being the only family that she had in the world. Will visits Charlotte seeking forgiveness. Charlotte though angry, forgives Will and they go on to have a short sweet affair.
One morning, while Will is preparing the Christmas tree and gifts for Charlotte, cutely refusing her to come and see, she collapses. Will rushes her to the hospital, where they share a rather intense but short parting as the doctors take her to the operation theatre.
Charlotte dies and Will is left alone, but he is a transformed man. This was the time, when he had actually found true, un-conditional love. A yearning to be with her, to buy some more time with her if he could. To fight with God to give her a longer life. Just when he had realized the importance of having the one you love with you, he was left alone. Life, had taken its revenge on him for ruining so many hearts.
But he has a softer heart now. The end, sees him sitting on a boat in a lake with his daughter and his grand-child with whom he lives now.
I was deeply touched by the movie and by Winona Ryder’s innocence and Richard’s performance. The original soundtrack of the movie is called “Beautiful” and is sung by Jennifer Paige. Its one of the most wonderful songs i’ve heard.
“I’m looking for a way to feel you hold me,
Feel your heart-beat, just one more time…
Reaching back, trying to touch the moment,
Each precious minute, that you were mine…
How do you prepare,
When you love someone this way,
To let them go, a little more each day…..
The stars we put in place,
The dreams we didn’t waste,
The sorrows we embraced,
The world belonged to you and me…
The oceans that we crossed,
The innocence we’ve lost,
The hurting at the end,
I’d go there again ‘coz it was…
Beautiful……… so beautiful……”