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Inventing the Abbotts

1997

Pat O'Connor

Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly ...

5.8

5,935

Comedy. Drama. Romance In the placid, potboiler-perfect 1950s hamlet of Haley, Illinois, life revolves around the wealthy and powerful Abbott family, which boasts three strapping brunette daughters in addition to its other assets. On the other side of the proverbial tracks live two fatherless brothers--one idolizes the Abbotts, while the other seeks to destroy the family by systematically deflowering and debasing the sisters.

	Media	Author	Review
		James Berardinelli ReelViews	"Inventing the Abbotts has the cast and characters to be something special; the script just isn't ambitious enough"
		Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"A film that seems to have been made in a time machine (...) Pat O'Connor, shows none of the cheerful love of human nature that enlivened his Circle Of Friends (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"The film belongs to Phoenix (To Die For), who is terrific (...) The delicacy of his scenes with Tyler lets you enjoy the film for what it truly is: a heartbreaker."
		Janet Maslin The New York Times	"[It] becomes as lavishly nostalgic as this film maker's 'Circle of Friends,' with a glowingly attractive young cast and a thick, charged atmosphere of romantic possibility. But it lacks defining moments and strong passions."
		Emanuel Levy Variety	"An emotionally powerful but extremely old-fashioned coming-of-age saga (...) The film is well directed, but pacing is too slow"
		Angie Errigo Empire	"People persist in making films like this, and other people persist in not going to see them. Nice, but no more (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"

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