Beautiful Ohio (2006)

An entire family comes of age during the early 1970s.

Director:

Chad Lowe

Writers:

Ethan Canin (screenplay), Ethan Canin (story)

Stars:

William Hurt, Rita Wilson, Brett Davern

2 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Hurt	...	Mr. Messerman
Rita Wilson	...	Mrs. Messerman
Brett Davern	...	William
David Call	...	Clive
Michelle Trachtenberg	...	Sandra
Hale Appleman	...	Elliot
Thomas McCarthy	...	William 30's (as Tom McCarthy)
Julianna Margulies	...	Mrs. Cubano
Matt Servitto	...	Mr. Cubano
Margaret Harth	...	Hungarian Woman #1
Constance Kelly	...	Hungarian Woman #2
Louise Corriente	...	Hungarian Woman #3
Spencer Grammer	...	Carlene
Wai Ching Ho	...	Elderly Woman
Joseph Adams	...	Proctor #2 (as Joe Adams)

Storyline

An entire family comes of age during the early 1970s.

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Plot Keywords:

1970s | library | search | hungarian | mathematics | 

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Taglines:

You can't resist being who you are.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 November 2006 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Accomplice Films, Wonderfilms, Boom Baby Productions

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Author Ethan Canin's original short story "Batorsag & Szerelem", which this movie is based on, originally took place in Iowa. When director Chad Lowe became interested in the project, and plans were made to film a movie based on the story, the action of "Batorsag & Szerelem" was moved to Shaker Heights, Ohio, which is a suburb of Cleveland.

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Goofs

In the scene where the father and two sons are playing hockey on their backyard rink, all three are wearing skates with white molded "Tuuk-style" blade holders. These were not seen on skates until 1979, and even then were available in black only. White blade holders did not appear until c. 1982. In 1973, the year in which the scene was set, blade holders would have been the steel tube style.

User Reviews

Not immediately obvious as an okay story. v1.00

It took more than one viewing for me to really like this.

First viewing, first ten minutes, it felt too weak to have reached DVD distribution. Then it picked up but it took special circumstances for me to watch it a second time. The second time, to me that was okay, as were the third and fourth viewings.

The start of the film felt way too high brow. Repeated viewing say no, that is just the family in a trap, one of a whole load of symptoms. Pseudo high brow? This is one of many stories that allows one to compare how things used to be understood, traps that people used to fall into, occasional glances at UK newspapers say that they still do. As such I find that it holds its own and that it is an interesting puzzle.

*

Around the same time I was also watching 17 Again, a big-ish budget Zac Efron that is widely respected, and I actually prefer Beautiful Ohio.

I find 17 Again to have a lot of amazing details and sequences, way above this story for that. Just this one seems to flow better. No little chunks of boredom among all of the detail. They can both be understood as considering traps that people used to fall into, still do, and both feel to be worthwhile and very different to each other, just I can now like Beautiful Ohio all the way through.

17 Again is mostly high quality in a range of different ways, this is quality in rather different ways.