SEINFELD BLOG

Empire Falls

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: 20223
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: May 28, 2005

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• Nobody's Fool
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Editorial Review:

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




Rating: - An excellent story and production
I love Richard Russo's stories and this one is outstanding. The production values are also outstanding, ... Read More

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Rating: - Remarkable Cast of Characters
In this HBO miniseries of Richard Russo's novel, Ed Harris plays an unpretentious restaurant manger that ... Read More

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Rating: - Wonderful Cast & Story -- Don't Miss!
Missed this when it originally aired on HBO. Living in Maine, I had to see it. It follows the book very ... Read More

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Rating: - The book is so much better
Sometimes movies measure up to books, as in Somerset Maugham's The Painted Veil. Sometimes movies may be even ... Read More

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Rating: - The Stories from a Small Town
"Empire Falls" (2005) is a screen adaptation of Richard Russo Pulitzer prize winning novel of the same title. ... Read More

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Copyright ©2003, Mark Carey.