TUCK EVERLASTING -- Jay Russell, dir.

©2002
studio: Walt Disney
production company: Beacon Communications LLC, Jane Startz Productions, Scholastic Productions, Walt Disney Pictures
dir: Jay Russell
cast: Alexis Bledel, Ben Kingsley, Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Victor Garber, Jonathan Jackson, Scott Bairstow, William Hurt
based on the book by Natalie Babbitt

Young Winnie Foster meets the Tuck family, and falls in love with seventeen year old Jessie Tuck. Only...Jessie isn't really seventeen. It appears that the Tucks have a very large secret, and Winnie must make some very tough, life or death choices which will last for eternity.

Okay, this seems like a strange movie for me to have viewed, but it's been in my Netflix queue for some time now. I really enjoyed reading the book a few years ago, and was looking forward to this film adaptation.

I didn't mind the movie too much, though I did find it to be a bit slow, and perhaps over-emphasized the romance between Jessie and Winnie (the scene in the pool under the falls would be a case of dwelling on the romance).

Some things, such as sub-plot of the evil man who has been tracking the Tucks, seem thrown in to the movie to be "faithful" to the book, but instead it really goes nowhere, and is over so quickly, you wonder why they even bothered.

My children enjoyed it...mostly my 10 year old daughter, and my 8 year old son, and I guess that is what this movie is about. It's a decent family movie, based on a wonderful book.

If your kids can sit still, even through the slower moments, then I would recommend this film for the whole family.