Tuck Everlasting (2002)
Film:
DVD:

Written by James V. Hart & Jeffrey Lieber, based on the novel by Natalie Babbitt
Directed by Jay Russell
Starring Alexis Bledel, Jonathan Jackson, William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley

Features:

• Running audio commentary with director Russell & screenwriter Hart
  
• Running audio commentary with director Russell and actors Bledel, Jackson and Scott Bairstow
  
• "Lessons of Tuck" viewing mode with additional segments branching off from the film
  
• "A Visit with Natalie Babbitt" featurette
  
• "Sneak Peeks" for Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Inspector Gadget 2, George of the Jungle 2, Beauty & the Beast: Belle's Magical World: Special Edition, Kim Possible, and "ABC Family"
  

Released by: Buena Vista Home Video
Rating: PG
Region: 1
Anamorphic: Yes

My Advice: Rent it.

Winnie Foster (Bledel) is a young girl who feels like she's being stifled by her mother's (Amy Irving) severe formality. After all, it's 1914--and there are some things young women just don't do. Like play stickball in the street, for example. Enter Jesse Tuck (Jackson), recently returned to the area along with his brother (Scott Bairstow) after ten years to visit with his family again. The thing is, he, his brother and his parents (Hurt & Spacek) really don't care that it's been ten years since they saw each other--time is nothing to them. You see, they've had a sip from a magical spring--and become immortal. Winnie becomes enthralled with the world of the Tucks--trouble is, her parents think she's been kidnapped. Further trouble is, there's this stranger (Kingsley) that's been tailing the Tuck boys, and he can't want anything good...

This is helmer Jay Russell's followup to My Dog Skip, a film that, considering its titular subject matter, just begged to be cheesy and debilitating. However, it wasn't. It was that neat rarity: a family film that didn't equate "family" with "mental pablum". It was sweet, it had heart, and it didn't make you want to kill yourself by paper cutting open your wrists with the edges of your popcorn box. So Russell's got some cred with me, anyway. He doesn't expend it with this film, which, like his previous outing, is a family film that deals with real issues and does not disappoint. Is it what you would call a Great Film, or perhaps a Classic? Probably not, but in this day and age I'll take a Good Film any hour of the day, personally. So few people know how to make them anymore.

And to Russell's credit, he surrounds himself with goodness, especially with his cast. I mean, for Christ's sake, look at the cast. And I'm not talking about the youngsters who are there to be beautiful--which they are, but let's face it, it doesn't take a lot of acting chops to be young and beautiful and conflicted about staying that way. I'm talking about the Tuck patriarch, played by Hurt, who emanates worldly wisdom perfectly. And Spacek as the Tuck matriarch, playing the loving mother who must make a fateful decision--and doing it well. Then of course there's Ben Kingsley being Ben Kingsley--in other words, just acting his arse off and having a good old time doing so. Probably my pick for stand out, though, would be Amy Irving--and that's just because for some strange reason I had such a hard time coming to grips with the fact that that severe little woman was Amy Irving. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure myself.

The DVD treatment for this film is actually quite good and about as extensive as a one-disc version can be. You get not one but two commentaries, with Russell playing master of ceremonies and not so much commenting on the film as it goes by but directing the people he's with (in one case the scribe, in another case his young cast members) to discuss bits and pieces about the making of and the process. There is a lot of emphasis on the book with this film, which is a goodness since Russell and company knew they were going to change some things, but wanted to be as true to the source material as they could. Some of Russell's ideas are a little weird, like his assertion that you can't adapt a book into a film--which is kind of semantically stupid, if you think about it. But still, the commentaries are fun, they're guided and they don't waste a great deal of time just telling you what's happening on the screen--always a plus.

Now, other stuff on this disc is clearly for the young teens in the audience--but that's okay, that's this film's primary demographic, so we're not going to get too torn up about it. Basically the "Lessons of Tuck" bit is where you can watch the film, and at a few points in the film, you'll branch off to what's essentially a discussion session led by Jonathan Jackson. Here, the various themes of the movie are explored by some celebrity "faces" as well as "ordinary" teens. Now, if you were trying to teach the book in a class or if you're a teen as stated above, you'll eat this cheese up. But everyone else should probably stay far away from it.

The last bit to speak of is the featurette with Natalie Babbitt, which makes sense to include with a feature that clearly prides itself on wanting to be as true as possible to the source material. The story of Babbitt and how she got into children's books and where things have gone from there will be of definite interest to any fans of her work--the segment is a good one.

Fans of the book or the film will probably want to own this edition, since it's quite good all things considered. Granted, it's heavy on the family-friendly dairy product--but that's the demographic, so what can you do? If you need a nice, light flick, you could do a lot worse than renting this.