Release Year: 2004 Rating: R Duration: 112 minutes Director: Dan Harris Producer: Moshe Diamant, Illana Diamant, Art Linson, Gina Resnick, Denise Shaw, Frank Hubner Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
synopsis
The Travis family façade is destroyed by an event incomprehensible to them -- an event which will open locked doors and finally reveal the secrets that have haunted them for decades.
cast
Sigourney Weaver as Sandy Travis
quote
Steph Connors: [Tim laying on Stephs bed] Do you wanna talk about it?
Tim Travis: Can we please talk about something else?
Steph Connors: Sure
[pulls Tim's shirt up a little bit and sees a bruise]
Steph Connors: What happened to your back?
[Tim turns over and sits up now facing her]
Tim Travis: Nothing I just tripped, it's nothing.
Steph Connors: OK.
[pause]
Steph Connors: So do you still wanna go to the party Friday?
Tim Travis: Yeah, of course.
When former vice president Dan Quayle came out for family values, he probably never met the Travis family–though given Quayle's ability to argue about fictional characters, he may not have had much trouble contacting them. The thing is, unless you've been raised by wolves, you know that not all families are alike and many of them are living hell for their hapless inhabitants. Some are downright dysfunctional, and who–aside from fans of the Bobsey Twins, the Hardy Boys and the folks on Leave It To Beaver–wants to hear about flawless, perfect folks residing in Shangri-La? The Travis family, created by writer and debut-director Dan Harris, is far from perfect; in fact it's undergoing a state of crisis. But these are the kinds of people that lots of us would be happy to live with, or at least with the hip mom, Sandy Travis, played impeccably with good humor and sadness alike by Sigourney Weaver.
