To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996)

Director:

Michael Pressman

Writers (WGA):

Michael Brady (play)
David E. Kelley (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 October 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

You're invited to Gillian's 37th birthday. There will be music in the air...castles in the sand...and someone totally unexpected at the party.

Plot:

David loves his wife, Gillian. Unfortunately, she died two years ago. David deals with his grief by...

Plot Keywords:

Ghost | Grief | Bereavement | Death Of Wife | Bittersweet

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Peter Gallagher	...	David Lewis
Michelle Pfeiffer	...	Gillian Lewis
Claire Danes	...	Rachel Lewis
Laurie Fortier	...	Cindy Bayles
Wendy Crewson	...	Kevin Dollof
Bruce Altman	...	Paul Wheeler
Kathy Baker	...	Esther Wheeler
Freddie Prinze Jr.	...	Joey Bost
Rachel Seidman-Lockamy	...	Megan Weeks
Lorielle New	...	Blonde on the Beach (as Lori New)
Danny Crook	...	Lifeguard
Seth Green	...	Danny
Todd Haven	...	Paramedic

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for a scene involving strong language, and for some sensuality and teen drinking.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | France:U | Portugal:M/12 (video premiere) | Spain:13 | UK:12 (video premiere) | USA:PG-13 (edited for re-rating) | Singapore:PG | Canada:14A (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Brant Point Lighthouse, Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Rastar Pictures

Trivia:

Freddie Prinze Jr.'s feature film debut.

Quotes:

David Lewis: Don't you think it is a little insensitive fixing me up on her birthday?
Paul Wheeler: Gillian has no more birthdays.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Frasier: Sharing Kirby (#9.9)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Let's Go

Read the play.

This is one of the worst play-to-film adaptations I've ever seen. Of course, that's because it's a terrible hack job of one of my favorite stage plays, so I'm biased.

It does my heart good to see David E. Kelley completely bombing out every time he tries to make a feature film. The guy is so overrated (in my opinion.) And he really, REALLY blew it with this movie, considering how excellent, how genuinely moving the source material is.

When I went to see the film (with well-founded trepidation), I noticed that the only laughs generated out of the dialogue were for jokes that are found in the original play. Unfortunately, Kelley has done great violence to the original story in his filmic massacre...I mean "adaptation"...and the movie falls flat, flat, flat. It utterly misses the deeper points of the stage drama.

In fact, except for the basics of plot, it barely resembles the award-winning play at all. Esther, instead of being a professional psychologist, becomes in the movie version a busybody nag who has taken a couple of psychology classes, which somehow qualifies her to analyze the main character David. Pretty lame.

David E. Kelley (not the main character, thank God), in his infinite wisdom, turns Cindy into a horny little slut who tries to seduce Paul, instead of keeping her the teenage girl next door who has the sweet, and somehow sad, schoolgirl crush on David. Gillian's depth and complexity of character completely disappears. In the film she's merely an ethereal beauty who hangs around to inanely chat with David. The point of the play is that she's both saint and sinner -- something Esther wants David to remember, before he idealizes her into a fantasy that drives him literally crazy.

Ugh! I could go on, but it will simply make me angrier and angrier. This movie stinks. Read the play. It's only a hundred thousand times better than the movie, that's all.