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| From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours comes a story that chronicles a dozen years in the lives of two best friends. The film charts a journey of trials, triumphs, loves and losses. Now the question is: can they navigate the unusual triangle they've created and hold their friendship together?
Remember your very best friend in school? The one who knew…and kept…all your secrets? Bobby and Jonathan, who shared that kind of friendship, meet again as adults in New York. Sparked by their relationship with free-spirited Clare, they forge a loving unit that redefines “family”.
Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn, Sissy Spacek and Dallas Roberts star in this lyrical film that’s both a celebration of commitment and a music and memory-driven portrait of America in the 70s and 80s.
Adapted by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Cunningham (The Hours) from his hown novel, A Home at the End of the World strikes close to home as an adventure as big as life itself: risky, surprising, sexually charged and real.
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Here's what our members thought of this title. 5 stars = very good, 1 star = poor.
 |  | "I get up and walk around in the dark sometimes. Does that freak you out?"
A powerful American melodrama with a trio of memorable performances, thoughtful direction and a tender, insightful screenplay from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham, A Home at the End of the World stars Colin Farrell, Robin Wright Penn and gifted newcomer Dallas Roberts. Examining the notion of family and the true nature of love, commitment and loyalty, the film examines a bisexual love triangle from multiple emotional angles. It's a film you should see. One you'll never forget.
"A Home at the End of the World was published in 1990," explains first-time movie director Michael Mayer, "just as I was beginning my directing career in the New York theatre. The story of two boys growing up in suburban Cleveland in the Sixties who move to Manhattan in the early Eighties where their paths connect with that of an older woman seemed somewhat like my own story. I too spent the first 18 years of my life in the suburbs, and moved to New York in 1980. The beautiful but complicated friendship in the book reminded me of relationships that I have had; and the story of creating a family against all odds spoke to me in a very powerful way. At the time, I remember thinking it would make a wonderful film.
"I was both surprised and delighted when, years later, I was approached by Tom Hulce about directing the film version. Although Tom was one of my favorite actors, I wasn't aware that he had become a producer. But from the moment I first sat down with him to talk about the movie, it was clear that we shared the same passion for Michael Cunningham's extraordinary novel."
"I knew we needed someone who was really sensational with actors, because the story was so character driven," says Hulce. "The acting in his stage productions was extraordinarily; subtle, nuanced, surprising. And Michael's work with the younger actors was terrific."
"Since I have spent many years directing plays and musicals both on and off Broadway," adds Mayer, "working with actors has been one of my greatest pleasures. That experience came in handy in helping me make the transition to a new medium. It was an embarrassment of riches, and I couldn't have been a more fortunate first-time director."
Even before the filmmakers started casting, they received a surprising call. "It was Colin Farrell's agent saying that he had read the script and was very interested in playing a leading role." This was before Farrell's success in Phone Booth and Minority Report, and Mayer is the first to admit he had no idea who Farrell was. "In fact the day that I went to meet Colin at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles was the day that the Vanity Fair issue came out with him on the cover. There were copies in the hotel lobby." However, the buzz was already beginning to build about Farrell's incredible acting chops. For the young actor who had read the script on his couch in Dublin, at five o'clock one morning, Michael Cunningham's writing once again cast its spell. "I read the script and then I read Michael's book, and the writing was just beautiful and there was so much heart and so much soul."
"A lot of the crew had read the script and a lot of them who'd been working in film and television for ten, fifteen years said that it was the best job they'd worked on," says Farrell. "It sounds so cheesy but from everyone…the grips…the transport… there was a love for it."
There was love for the director, too. "I can't say enough wonderful things about Michael Mayer," observes co-star Sissy Spacek. "He comes from the theater and he likes actors and he's really focused in on performance."
"He gave us so much detail," adds Farrell. "He would run the scene himself and play three characters: even though it wouldn't be how you'd do it, you'd get exactly what he was talking about."
"What I didn't know going in," concludes Mayer, "was that temperamentally I was well-suited to directing a movie. The control freak in me really blossomed. Making this film was as satisfying a creative experience as I have ever had. I am looking forward to making another one, but if I only had one movie to make, I'm very happy that it was this one."
(C) 2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
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