Parallel Lives (film)
| Parallel Lives | |
|---|---|
| File:Parallel lives 1994 film tv.jpg | |
| Directed by | Linda Yellen |
| Produced by | Linda Yellen |
| Written by | Gisela Bernice Linda Yellen |
| Starring | James Belushi Liza Minnelli Gena Rowlands |
| Music by | Patrick Seymour |
| Cinematography | Paul Cameron |
|
Release dates
|
1994 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Parallel Lives is a 1994 television film written, directed and produced by Linda Yellen. It returns some actors and similar patterns of Yellen's previous work, Chantilly Lace.[1][2] It is Dudley Moore's last film role.[3]
Parallel Lives was broadcast August 14, 1994 on the Showtime cable network.[1]
Cast
- James Belushi as Nick Dimas
- Liza Minnelli as Stevie Merrill
- James Brolin as Professor Spencer Jones
- Helen Slater as Elsa Freedman
- LeVar Burton as Dr. Franklin Carter
- Jack Klugman as Senator Robert Ferguson
- Patricia Wettig as Rebecca Ferguson Stone
- Ben Gazzara as Charlie Duke
- Mira Sorvino as Matty Derosa
- Lindsay Crouse as Una Pace
- JoBeth Williams as Winnie Winslow
- Ally Sheedy as Louise
- Paul Sorvino as Ed Starling
- Matthew Perry as Willie Morrison
- Jill Eikenberry as Lula Sparks
- Treat Williams as Peter Barnum
- Dudley Moore as Imaginary Friend / President Andrews
- Gena Rowlands as Francie Pomerantz
- Robert Wagner as the sheriff
- Michael O'Rourke as Kirk O'Brien
- Alan Feinstein as Dan Merrill
Production
The movie was developed by Yellen with the assistance of the Sundance Institute.[2] As with Chantilly Lace, it uses "guided improvisations"[4] with the actors, after receiving some general character outlines, free to improvise.[2]
Reception
The movie received mixed reviews. The New York Times critic John Leonard argued: "'Parallel Lives' is injured in its lightness of being by Yellen's added structure. But until it sinks in murky narrative waters, it's a marvel of raw edges and wild wit and surprise cunning, of craft that goes up like a kite to catch some lightning."[1] The Variety critic Ray Loynd wrote: "When the movie works best (...), this is a movie that tends to make The Big Chill look sodden."[2]
On the other hand, Lynne Heffley opened her review for the Los Angeles Times with these words: "From the sublime to the ridiculous... and the ridiculous has the edge in 'Parallel Lives.'[5] Jerry Roberts in his Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors defined the film as "a cattle call at the actors unemployment line"[6] and film critic Lewis Beale in his video review for the New York Daily News claimed that: "Linda Yellen's film wants to be hip, moving and Robert Altmanesque (overlapping dialogue and an improvisational feel), but it's simply tedious and stupid."[7]
References
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