Tuck Everlasting

Make no mistake: this is a nice movie, but it's one of those films you can't help but feel could have been so much better.

The first 20 minutes was very promising with spectacular scenery, overall cinematography and interesting characters. But, it started to slow down and then just bogged down more and more with a teen romance. Yes, it finished fairly well but unless you are a teen or 20-something young woman, I doubt this film will hold your interest.

Perhaps even for some women, this movie did not turn out as dramatically as it should have been. It's just too flat. Too bad; it looked like a "keeper' for awhile.

'Tuck Everlasting' is one of those sweet movies with a lot of flaws you don't care about. You could ask question after question but I did not find a reason to do so. The story about an immortal family and a young teenager that comes into their lives is probably a well known story for some audiences, but I didn't know it. The immortal family exists out of father Angus Tuck (William Hurt), mother Mae (Sissy Spacek) and two sons named Miles (Scott Bairstow) and Jesse (Jonathan Jackson). The young teenager who is taken by the family so she can not reveal their secret is Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel).

Although at first the family thinks Winnie needs to be killed, things change when Jesse Tuck and Winnie start to have feeling for one another. Winnie becomes a new member of the family. In the mean while we have Winnie's parents (played by Amy Irving and Victor Garber) looking for her. A man in a yellow suit (Ben Kingsley) is actually looking for the Tuck family but thinks he will find the girl with them as well. He knows how the Tucks have found their immortality and has plans for himself.

You can probably understand how many flaws a movie like this must have. There a couple of reasons we don't really want to ask too many questions. First of all it is a good thing the movie keeps the attention in the middle of everything. It does not really focus on the reason of immortality, it does not really focus on the relationship between Jesse and Winnie and it does not really focus on the outsiders like Winnie's parents and the Kingsley-character. Although that is not a good thing in most movies it works perfectly here.

Another reason you don't want to ask questions is Alexis Bledel together with Jonathan Jackson. They are sweet together, have some nice scenes. Although you sometimes see the Rory Gilmore of 'The Gilmore Girls' Bledel does a nice job with her Winnie Foster. Jonathan Jackson, who I only know from a small part in 'Insomnia', is a good choice for Jesse. This and three other respectable actors like Hurt, Spacek and Kingsley make sure the movie does not fail on that level.

All this together with a very nice score and some beautiful images make this a very good movie. It is perfect for the whole family. If you can forget the flaws, forget the question you might have, you must be able to fully enjoy this.

Winnie Foster(Alexis Bledel) is a free spirited young girl who is sick of living a boring life with her rich strict parents and one night after an argument with her parents Winnie runs away. She gets lost in a forest and stumbles upon Jesse(Jonathon Jackson). His family now takes Winnie with them because she has discovered a secret. That the Tuck's are immortal and that she can never ever tell anybody about that. Winnie and Jesse fall in love, and now Winnie must choose, will she go on and live her life like she is supposed to, or will she become immortal just like Jesse and spend forever with him? I thought this was a very beautiful movie, it is not just for kids like many people say. I think the whole family could enjoy this movie, it questions a lot of things people wonder about these days and it's just a really great magical fairytale. I would give Tuck Everlasting 10/10

One of the things that I liked about Tuck Everlasting is that it conceded that in the coming age secrets like what the Tuck family has would be harder to keep. And the Tucks have a secret well worth keeping. They were at that time before World War I acknowledging the faster methods of communication and transportation would make it impossible. In 2002 when the film was released we are now passed the industrial age and into the age of communication. You know someone would find out and post it on the web.

The secret of the Tucks is that they've found the secret of immortality in a spring located deep in the woods where they've settled. The family is parents William Hurt and Sissy Spacek and sons the brooding Scott Bairstow and the eternally youthful Jonathan Jackson.

The property however is owned by Victor Garber and Amy Irving and they've got a daughter Alexis Bledel whom they keep most sheltered. One day she wonders into the Tuck woods and meets the family. She nearly drinks from the spring and can't understand why the Tucks warn her away. But she experiences a first love with Jackson and they are a pair of the most romantic lovers you will ever meet.

It's a regular Garden of Eden the Tucks have, but there's a serpent there and it's in the form of Ben Kingsley. Kingsley has heard rumors of this fountain of youth and immortality and he's here to find it and exploit it as he feels that only certain people should enjoy immortality. As the film builds Kingsley grows more evil and more serpentine, he will really creep you out.

This film bears comparison to the Highlander movies and TV series and a bit of comparison to Sean Connery's science fiction classic Zardoz. All deal with immortality and what a trap it can be if you think about it. The Tucks have it better than Duncan McLeod, he can go if he's decapitated. A highland broadsword wouldn't even penetrate the skin of a Tuck.

Tuck Everlasting is really about Bledel and Jackson and a love that can never be. Scott Bairstow has an effective scene about the family he raised who have all gone and left him alone for an eternity.

Fitting that Tuck Everlasting should be a product of the Disney studios because the film has an aura of magic and it's fitting it come from the Magic Kingdom. It's a charming fantasy, you can't do much better with films of fantasy than this one.

This is the best adaptation of a classic children's book I've seen in a very long time. Nearly everything in this film is just right. Of all the live-action films that Walt Disney produced in his lifetime, one he was very proud of was the 1960 POLLYANNA, and TUCK EVERLASTING reminded me of POLLYANNA in several key aspects. Like POLLYANNA, TUCK has a meticulous attention to period details (it takes place in 1914). Also like POLLYANNA, it has some high-powered acting talent in peripheral roles, with the main focus of the story on younger, less well-known actors. The cinematography is beautiful, with a rich interplay of light and shadow, and to best appreciate this aspect, you should try to see it in a theater with the brightest picture available. Like another classic children's book (CHARLOTTE'S WEB) TUCK EVERLASTING explores philosophical concepts of life and death and eternity that most adult films, much less children's films, ever touch on. I hope that TUCK doesn't end up comparable to POLLYANNA in one key area: lack of box-office success. Walt was extremely disappointed when, despite the loving attention he garnished on the film, audiences for the most part stayed away. TUCK EVERLASTING deserves to be a huge success. Hollywood has come under frequent criticism for not making enough family-friendly films, but it seems that when a rich, intelligent film does come out, it's ignored. I hope and pray that this one won't be.