Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Brand: Warner Brothers EAN: 9780783134901 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC ISBN: 0783134908 Label: Hbo Home Video Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Hbo Home Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: September 13, 2005 Running Time: 195 minutes Sales Rank: 1471 Studio: Hbo Home Video Theatrical Release Date: May 28, 2005
Product Description: Adapted by author Richard Russo from his 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning novel EMPIRE FALLS is a portrait of the gritty drama and human comedy that make up everyday life in blue-collar America. On a daily basis goodhearted restaurant manager Miles Roby (Ed Harris 'Glengarry Glen Ross') tries to keep his Empire Grill going even as the wealthy and powerful Mrs. Whiting(Joanne Woodward 'Philadelphia') makes life difficult for him. If that wasn't enough Miles has to keep tabs on his scoundrel of a dad Max (Paul Newman 'The Color of Money') who is always looking for trouble. But Miles has something much bigger than just restaurant receipts and a cantankerous father on his mind-he can't shake the ghosts of his past that keep his fate inevitably connected to Empire Falls.Running Time: 180 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359275326
Amazon.com: A frame-bursting roster of actors crowds this two-part HBO miniseries, which is nothing less than a look at America through the lens of a small New England town. Richard Russo adapted his own novel, a story of a gently depressed factory town that has always been run by the wealthiest family around (currently lorded over by matriarch Joanne Woodward). Ed Harris plays the central role, a decent, cautious man who runs a local diner and carefully negotiates the political niceties of Empire Falls; Paul Newman is his rapscallion of a father (the son is perpetually picking food out of Dad's beard), Helen Hunt is Harris's ex-wife, Aidan Quinn his feistier brother, and Robin Wright Penn his tragical mother seen in flashbacks.
The goal of Russo and director Fred Schepisi seems to have been fidelity to the novel, which gives the film a pleasingly relaxed pace but also a somewhat literal-minded binding. Even that doesn't explain the general lack of tautness, or why so much of the dialogue has an awkward fit in actors' mouths. Harris and Newman, of course, are younger and older versions of American monuments, and their sheer presence goes a long way toward making the picture work (for the premium Newman-Russo match, see Robert Benton's sublime film of Nobody's Fool). Most of the twists in the final reels are genuinely affecting, and the movie has the courage to end on a mild note rather than strain to tie everything up. It's a fitting finale for an unassuming enterprise. --Robert Horton
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Average Rating:
Rating: - In Memoriam, Paul Leonard Newman (1925-2008)
This miniseries should be re-watched because we lost a GREAT actor recently who done so good for so many.
This was his final appearance on film and he deserves a final award. Now is not the time to grieve, it is time to help others who need our help. This will truly honor a GREAT man indeed...
Markus Henry McLaughlin
marknetproductions.wordpress.com
Hudson, MA, USA
Rating: - FRED SCHEPISI, OPUS 16
**1/2 2005. A TV movie based on Richard Russo's Empire Falls and directed by Fred Schepisi. Two Golden Globes and an Emmy award. A stellar cast for this 240 minutes adaptation of Richard Russo's novel. Not great, not bad, the film depicts the life of a few people living in a small New England town. In my opinion, it should have been much longer in order to describe all the tracks the residents of Empire Falls have left in the town. As it is, EMPIRE FALLS is imperfect and can only emphasize the limitations of the TV medium. Already forgotten.
Rating: - An excellent story and production
I love Richard Russo's stories and this one is outstanding. The production values are also outstanding, and it's fun to see old favorites like Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Ed Harris, Aidan Quinn, Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman strutting their stuff.
Rating: - Remarkable Cast of Characters
In this HBO miniseries of Richard Russo's novel, Ed Harris plays an unpretentious restaurant manger that shows us his life within a small economically depressed Maine town. While trying to keep the doors of the Empire Grill open, he must deal with an ever increasing cast of characters - from Joanne Woodward, the town matriarch to Paul Newman - his curmudgeonly wayward father, to his ex-wife Helen Hunt (who does not pull off the accent very well). Ed Harris shows the traumas and realities of his everyday life while coming to terms with his past.
I never did read the book which some swear is better, but this gem of a movies, with its beautiful scenery and amazing cast of characters is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.
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- In Memoriam, Paul Leonard Newman (1925-2008)
- FRED SCHEPISI, OPUS 16
