Tuck Everlasting (2002 film)

Film by Jay Russell

Tuck Everlasting is a 2002 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by Jay Russell and written by Jeffrey Lieber and James V. Hart, based on Natalie Babbitt's 1975 book of the same name. Narrated by Elisabeth Shue, the film stars Alexis Bledel, Ben Kingsley, Sissy Spacek, Amy Irving, Victor Garber, Jonathan Jackson, Scott Bairstow and William Hurt. The film was released in the United States on October 11, 2002.

In 1914, fifteen year old Winnie Foster is from an upper class family in the American town of Treegap and wants to make her own choices in life. After being told that she will go to a boarding school, she runs off into the forest, where she meets Jesse Tuck, who is drinking from a spring at the foot of a great tree. She is kidnapped by his older brother Miles and brought back to the Tucks' home where they tell her they will return her as soon as they can trust her. She becomes enamored with their slow and simple way of life and falls in love with Jesse. She learns that, by drinking water from a magic spring around a hundred years ago, the Tucks cannot age or be injured, and that they kidnapped her to hide the secret. They tell her that living forever is more painful than it sounds, and that they believe giving away the secret of the spring will lead everyone to want to drink from it and worry it might fall into the wrong hands. A man in a yellow suit befriends the Fosters while Winnie is gone. He spies on the Tucks and desires the spring to sell the water. He makes a deal to return Winnie in exchange for the forest. He goes to the Tucks and orders them to reveal where the spring is; when they deny any knowledge of it, he threatens Winnie with a pistol. He calls their bluff by shooting Jesse and exposing his immortality; but in return Jesse's mother, Mae, kills him with the butt end of a rifle. A constable arrives and arrests Mae and Angus. Mae is sentenced to be hanged for murdering the man. After being returned home, Winnie is woken by Jesse, who begs her to help him free his parents. The family fears that if Mae is hanged the next day, she won't die and their immortality will be exposed to the public. Winnie helps Jesse and Miles to break the Tucks out of jail and says goodbye to them. Jesse, who has fallen in love with Winnie, asks her to join them, but Angus warns her that it is dangerous to go with them as they will be hunted. Jesse tells Winnie to drink from the spring so that she will live forever and never age, and that he will come back for her when all is safe, then leaves, promising to love her until the day he dies. After the Tucks depart, Winnie chooses not to drink the water, as Angus warned her that being immortal is far worse than living a typical life and that she should not fear death. More than 85 years later, in the present day, Jesse returns to Treegap on a motorcycle. He goes into the woods and at the base of the great tree finds Winnie's headstone marking the site where the spring once stood. The stone reads that Winnie became a wife and mother before passing away at 100 years of age. Jesse sits at her grave, smiling through his tears and remembering her.

Filming took place from April 23, 2001, to June 11, 2001. The film was shot in Maryland, specifically in Baltimore, Bel Air and Berlin. The film was filmed in 2.40:1 widescreen. The film was narrated by Elisabeth Shue. Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton — two of the future creators of the longest running live action sitcom in the history of U. S. television, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — met during tryouts for the film. Neither landed a role in the movie.

On a $15 million budget, Tuck Everlasting grossed $19,161,999 in the US and $182,616 in other territories for a worldwide total of $19,344,615. The film was released on VHS and DVD on February 25, 2003. The film was filmed in 2.40:1 widescreen. All copies present the film in 2.40:1 widescreen. On Metacritic, the film has a 66 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times gave the film two stars out of four, writing that the film "is too impressed with its own solemn insights to work up much entertainment value". He further wrote that the film's message was questionable, opining "the injunction to live life fully need not come with a time limit. That's why the outcome of the romance is so unsatisfactory."