Taglines: Everyone Looking for Love… In All the Wrong Places.
‘Til There Was You movie storyline. Gwen grows up with her romantic mother constantly telling her the story of her courtship and marriage to her father. Nick grows up with an alcoholic father who can’t hold a job and whose family, as a result, is forced to move all the time. The two are shaped by this – Gwen a romantic and Nick withdrawn, unsure of himself – as they watch the hugely popular sixties sitcom, “One Big Happy Family.”
Years later, it is the star of that show, now a child actor gone bad with a history of detox and people always saying, “I thought she was dead,” Francesca Lanfield, who connects the two of them, after years of near-misses and almost encounters. Gwen is hired to ghost-write Francesca’s autobiography, while Nick, becoming her lover, is the architect who is to design a building on Francesca’s property. When Gwen decides to crusade to save Francesca’s building, she writes letters to the newspaper which catches Nick’s attention – and wins his heart.
‘Til There Was You is a 1997 American romantic drama film directed by Scott Winant. The screenplay, written by Winnie Holzman, traces thirty-odd years in the parallel lives of two people whose intertwined paths finally converge when their mutual interest in a community project brings them together. The film starred Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dylan McDermott, Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston.
About the Story
Gwen Moss (Jeanne Tripplehorn) has spent the better part of her life waiting for the man of her dreams, unaware she briefly bumped into him at school as children and has had several close encounters ever since. She aspires to have a life like her longtime friend Debbie (Jennifer Aniston), a successful doctor with a beautiful home but a marriage that may not be as perfect as it seems on the surface.
Gwen is hired to ghostwrite the autobiography of former child star Francesca Lanfield (Sarah Jessica Parker), whose career virtually ended following her stint on a long-running Partridge Family-Brady Bunch hybrid sitcom. Francesca owns La Fortuna, a picturesque vintage apartment complex (filmed at the historic El Cabrillo). Architect Nick Dawkan’s (Dylan McDermott) boss Timo wants to buy and demolish the complex so his firm can construct a modern condominium development in its place.
Francesca agrees to the sale as long as Nick is placed in charge of the project, and the two embark on a somewhat tempestuous relationship. Both are damaged emotionally; Francesca has overcome an addiction to drugs but still craves the spotlight, while Nick is dealing with the memory of a father who failed as a songwriter and became a hopeless alcoholic.
Meanwhile, Gwen is shocked to discover her father Saul never loved her mother Beebee and is devastated when the two decide to divorce. Her parents’ story of how they met from her childhood turns out to be false: Saul got stood up by his date that night and Beebee thought that he was interested in her. They only married to “avoid an argument”, as Saul puts it.
Gwen moves into La Fortuna and finds herself surrounded by an assortment of odd but lovable neighbors who have created a family of their own. When the tenants are presented with eviction notices, they decide to fight back. Having discovered the property was designed by Sophia Monroe, one of the first female architects of note (and coincidentally Nick’s mentor during the early stages of his career), and served as home to silent film star Louise Brooks, Gwen hopes she can have it declared an historical landmark with the assistance of Jon Haas, the city councilman she is dating.
‘Til There Was You (1997)
Directed by: Scott Winant
Starring: Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dylan McDermott, John Plumpis, Christine Ebersole, Yvonne Zima, Karen Allen, Michael Tucker, Joette Hayward, Mary Martin
Screenplay by: Winnie Holzman
Production Design by: Craig Stearns
Cinematography by: Bobby Bukowski
Film Editing by: Joanna Cappuccilli Lovetti, Richard Marks
Costume Design by: Enid Harris, Rita Salazar
Set Decoration by: Ellen Totleben
Art Direction by: Randy Moore
Music by: Terence Blanchard, Miles Goodman
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sensuality, language and drug references.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: May 30, 1997
Hits: 265
