Inventing the Abbotts

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Inventing the Abbotts
Directed by Pat O'Connor
Produced by Brian Grazer
Ron Howard
Written by Ken Hixon (screenplay)
Sue Miller (short story)
Starring Joaquin Phoenix
Billy Crudup
Liv Tyler
Jennifer Connelly
Will Patton
Music by Michael Kamen
Cinematography Kenneth MacMillian
Editing by Ray Lovejoy
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Imagine Entertainment
Release date(s) April 4, 1997
Running time 110 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Inventing the Abbotts is a 1997 drama film and romance film directed by Pat O'Connor, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Liv Tyler, and Jennifer Connelly. The screenplay by Ken Hixon is based on a short story by Sue Miller. The original music score is composed by Michael Kamen. The film is marketed with the tagline "When you want it all but can't have it, there's only one way to handle life... invent it." Julie Benz has a small role as a co-ed who gets chatted up by Jacey Holt.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The lives of two closely linked families dangerously intersect in a small Illinois town in the 1950s. Basic plot is about two brothers--Jacey and Doug Holt--growing up in a small town in Haley, Illinois, sons of a working single mother. As the movie progresses, we find out that their father, a reckless risk-taker, has lost his life via a bet with Lloyd Abbott, his business partner. Abbott eventually becomes the town's foremost, wealthiest and most-admired citizen. The lives of the Holts and the Abbotts are intertwined through various entanglements which we discover later in the film. Lloyd Abbott and his distant wife, Joan, are the parents of three beautiful daughters, Alice, Eleanor and Pamela.

Due to a misunderstanding of the the circumstances surrounding his father's death (a supposed bet with Abbott that took the elder Holt's life), Jacey (Billy Crudup) seeks revenge on the Abbotts through the calculated seduction of the Abbott daughters. At first, Jacey cannot wait to escape the suffocating life in Haley; later in the film, however, he is pulled back as he idolizes the Abbott family, and obsesses about the oldest daughter, Alice, thus seeking to jockey his way into the Abbott family.

Joaquin Phoenix, as Doug, turns in an excellent performance as the younger brother, at first admiring and worshiping his brother's libertine lifestyle. However, as he matures, he discovers that all that glitters is not gold. He eventually falls in love with the youngest, virginal Abbott, Pamela (Liv Tyler), who protests his early, fumbling sexual advances, and she forces him to appreciate her for who she is, not what she may offer up to him. Despite the obstacles that Lloyd Abbott places in the way of any of the Holt brothers ever seeing his daughters again, Doug convinces Abbott at the end of the story of his true love for Pamela and receives his blessing on a future relationship.

[edit] Main cast

Actor Role
Joaquin Phoenix Doug Holt
Billy Crudup Jacey Holt
Liv Tyler Pamela Abbott
Jennifer Connelly Eleanor Abbott
Will Patton Lloyd Abbott
Kathy Baker Helen Holt
Joanna Going Alice Abbott
Barbara Williams Joan Abbott
Alessandro Nivola Peter Vanlaningham
Michael Keaton Narrator/Older Doug

[edit] DVD details

  • Release date: March 13, 2001
  • Anamorphic Widescreen
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
  • Audio tracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Dolby Digital Surround
French Dolby Digital Surround
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Special Features: Theatrical trailer, Featurette
  • Running time: 110 minutes

[edit] External links

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