A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1994 Ben Hoffman
If you read George Eliot's SILAS MARNER when you were in school, you will recognize the story has been used as the basis for this film written by Steve Martin and updated to 1984.
Michael McCann (Martin) is a cabinet maker who leads a quiet life as a recluse. When one day a woman with a small child is near his secluded home, the woman falls and freezes to death. When the cabinet maker goes out to investigate a noise he heard, the young girl toddles into his home through the open door ... and McCann's life changes forever.
McCann is everything a father should be to the baby, who he names "Mathilda," unaware that John Newland (Gabriel Byrne), a local politician, is the biological father. However, Newland, who is wealthy, intends one day to get her back. When that happens, the court must decide if the biological father, who can afford to bring up his daughter in style and send her to an Ivy League school when she grows up, should get custody or should the poor man who raised her.
The cast includes Stephen Baldwin as Newland's thieving brother, Laura Linney as John Newland's wife and five young girls who are Mathilda at various ages. Alana Austin is Mathilda at age 10 and a great little actress she is!
Directed by Gillies MacKinnon.
2.5 bytes 4 Bytes = Absolutely must see. 3 Bytes = Too good to be missed. 2 Bytes = So so. 1 Byte = Save your money.
Ben Hoffman
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