Top left and clockwise: Virginia Madsen in "The Haunting In Connecticut",
opening in the U.S. and Canada on March 27; Allis in the documentary
"Must Read After My Death; Mark Ruffalo in the 2007 film "Reservation Road",
directed by Terry George; Julianne Moore and Dennis Haysbert in Todd Haynes'
"Far From Heaven", and Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in the recent film
"Revolutionary Road", directed by Ms. Winslet's husband, Sam Mendes.
At The Movies, What's The Matter With
Connecticut??
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com SHARE
Monday, March 23, 2009
Katharine Hepburn was born here. She died here too. Connecticut
Yankees. Rosalind Russell and Robert Mitchum were also born here.
Connecticut in the movies.
Over time, Connecticut in American movies has become synonymous with
catastrophe, melancholy, dysfunction or all three. In 2002 there was "Far
From Heaven", Todd Haynes' film about longings of romance during a racially-torn
1950's Connecticut, a variation on Douglas Sirk's classic film "All That Heaven
Allows". In 2007 came
"Reservation Road", based on a novel that was adapted and directed by
Terry George. Late last year there was the similarly-sounding film
"Revolutionary Road", also set in 1950's Connecticut. And
documentary film isn't a stranger to this American state on the Eastern
seaboard, with one of this year's best films so far
"Must Read After My Death", painting a chilling portrait of family
life for Allis and Charley and their children Anne, Chuck, Bruce and Doug, from
home movies recorded by Allis and Charley, the turbulent spouses whose entire
marriage is laid bare in all its pain, for the world to see.
Opening in U.S. movie theaters on Friday is "The Haunting In Connecticut", Peter
Cornwell's film based on the true story of the Snedekers, a family who moved in
to a house in 1987 in Southington, Connecticut and immediately proceeded to be
haunted by supernatural beings and spirits. The house had apparently been
a mortuary in the 1930's. Virginia Madsen and Elias Koteas star in the new
film, a PG-13-rated horror released by Lionsgate, the independent U.S. film
distributor. The trailer provides some chills and the movie's poster
offers a feeling of the creepy and grotesque. The Oscar-nominated
"Revolutionary Road" plays like sheer horror, based on Richard Yates' novel of
the 1950's suburban life for a couple who want out of it. Connecticut may
not be as well-chronicled on the big screen in America as New York or Los
Angeles is but it definitely has a spotlight carved out for it.
Like it or not Connecticut residents, your state has become a place for movie
tragedy played out to the hilt in suburbia, at least lately. With far from
uplifting films ("Revolutionary Road" and "Must Read After My Death") most
recently playing on the big screen (the latter is playing right now for the
price of a rental at
www.giganticdigital.com), Connecticut's
sanguine days are yet to re-emerge on the silver screen. Though a variety
of films have been shot or set there and with numerous stories over the years
(one may think fondly of 1988's "Mystic Pizza" with Julia Roberts, or films that
preceded it), Connecticut appears to be taking more hits than Cleveland.
Addendum: "Dream House", a film to be directed by Jim Sheridan ("In The Name
Of The Father", "The Boxer", "In America", "Get Rich Or Die Trying") is also
about a family moving to Connecticut into a house that they later realized was
the same house where a man may have murdered his family and is still alive and
planning to return to the house.
Copyright The Popcorn Reel. PopcornReel.com. 2009. All Rights
Reserved.
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