Restless Spirits (1999) (TV)

Director:

David Wellington

Writers:

Gail Collins (story) and
Semi Chellas (story) ...

Release Date:

1 August 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Fantasy

Plot:

A young girl, who struggles with her pilot father's death in a plane crash years before, visits her grandmother in Newfoundland...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Ghost | Airplane | Grandmother | Frenchman

Awards:

4 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Lothaire Bluteau	...	Charles Nungesser
Michel Monty	...	François Coli
Juliana Wimbles	...	Katie
Marsha Mason	...	Lydia
Leslie Hope	...	Charlotte
Ben Cook	...	Andy
Eugene Lipinski	...	Mr. Martin
Brooke Johnson	...	Mrs. Martin
Dan Lett	...	Mr. Frears
James Allodi	...	Mr. Hindle
Nickolas Swan	...	Simon
Brittany Allen	...	Stacey
Lauren Collins	...	Rhonda
Sheldon Turcott	...	TV Reporter
Lizz Alexander	...	Woman with red hair

Also Known As:

Dead Aviators
Restless Spirits (UK)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Accent Entertainment Corporation

Trivia:

This movie is based on a true event. Capt. Charles Eugene Jules Marie Nungesser and Capt. Francois Coli were a pair of French aviators who may have crashed in Newfoundland as they sought to become the first pilots to fly nonstop from Paris to New York in 1927 - just two weeks before Charles Lindbergh made aviation history with his successful nonstop flight in the opposite direction. Their plane was the White Bird. The wreckage and their bodies were never found.

Another take on Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day."

Shown on Showtime as "Restless Spirits," this is a fine tale of a pair of aviators flying from France to Newfoundland trying to be the first to cross the Atlantic. They crash in an odd fog and every time that fog reappears they crash again with no memory of the previous crashes.

At the time of the story it is sixty years later and they don't know that Lindbergh won the prize for the first crossing and they don't know they are ghosts.

The protagonist is the 12-year-old Juliana Wimbles playing Katie who finds them and figures out both their problem and the solution while they help her come to terms with her father's death in a test plane crash and with her mother's new romance.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and expect to view it over and over just as I see such similar movies as "Groundhog Day," "Somewhere in Time," and "Time at the Top" over and over.