Tribute (2009) (TV)

Director:

Martha Coolidge

Writers (WGA):

Gary Tieche (teleplay)
Nora Roberts (novel)

Release Date:

11 April 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance

Plot:

A former child star buys her grandmother's house to rescue it from ruin but her hope for serenity is soon eclipsed by haunting dreams of her famous grandmother, who died of a supposed overdose in the house more than 30 years ago. |

Plot Keywords:

Ex Husband | Drugged Drink | Vandalism | Marriage Proposal | Artist

Cast

Brittany Murphy	...	Cilla McGowan
Jason Lewis	...	Ford Sawyer
Christian Oliver	...	Steve Chensky
Diana Scarwid	...	Cathy Morrow
Tippi Hedren	...	Mrs. Hennessey
Tiffany Morgan	...	Janet
Griff Furst	...	Brian Morrow
Wallace Merck	...	Carl Hennessy
Mark Wilson	...	Det. Alvin Wilson
Elliott Grey	...	Tom Morrow
Brandi Coleman	...	Shana
Blake Nelson Boyd	...	1970's Party Piano Player
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jerry Leggio	...	Ice cream parlor owner
Earl Maddox	...	Buddy
Hunter McGregor	...	Construction Worker
Katherine Rose	...	70's Party Guest
Lisa Mackel Smith	...	Janet's Guest

Also Known As:

Nora Roberts' Tribute (USA) (complete title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Goofs:

Continuity: At the end of the movie, when Cilla is left at Ford's while he goes to play poker her hair is in a straight high ponytail and quite a bit shorter than it has been through the movie. Then when Janet comes over, as they are walking back to Cilla's you notice her hair is in a lower pony, and back to it's long, curly length.

Your kin has brought us nothing but sorrow and misery!

***SPOILERS*** Going back to her roots in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley former child movie star Cilla McGowan, Brittany Murphy, is determined to restore her grandmother's,the legendary Academy Award winning actress and singer, Janet Hardy (Tiffany Morgan) southern mansion. The place over the last thirty five years has gone to pot since Janet's tragic death-at age 38-back in the winter of 1971 from a massive overdose of barbiturates.

It doesn't take long for Cilla to make enemies in town with the angry and a bit unstable-to say the least- Old Man Carl Hennessey, Wallace Merck, suspiciously snooping around her house. Hennessey later shows how very very unneighborly like he is by him spitting in Cilla's face when she confronted him about his very strange and bizarre actions. It turned out that Cilla's Uncle Johnnie was responsible-by driving drunk-in Carl's son-who was a passenger in Johnnie's car- ending up paralyzed from the neck down!

There's also the fact that Janet was also having an affair with one of her neighbors that by Cilla uncovering his love letters, all unsigned, to her strongly hinted that she got pregnant by him! This may well have lead, in Janet's lover trying to save his marriage, to her murder not suicide as reported by the, back then in 1971, local coroner!

Getting romantically involved with her next door-or next farm- neighbor Ford Sawyer, Jason Lewis, a local graphic designer Cilla soon becomes the target of some local lunatic who, like some half dozen others in town, has it in for her for what Cilla's family-or late Grandma Janet Hardy-actions did to him. It's this shadowy psycho who's constantly breaking into Cilla's now restored mansion,and wrecking the joint, while she's away mostly spending her nights at Ford's place. It soon becomes evident to the police that Old Man Hennessey isn't the person that's committing these property crimes and acts of terror since he's been locked up all the time that they've been happening to Cilla. Then who's the person committing them?

As we all suspect, due to her very wild and anything goes lifestyle, the person driving poor Cilla's nuts has to be the man, or possibly his very jealous wife, whom Janet had an affair with just before her sudden and mysterious death! It's then that Cilla as well as her boyfriend Ford Sawyer realizes that it was that person who very possibly murdered Janet, and had it made to look like a suicide, and now in her getting close to the truth is going to do the very same thing to Cilla!