This updating of George Eliot's novel "Silas Marner" to contemporary America is just weird enough to be of more than passing interest but if its storyline seems far-fetched to say the least, remember it's a Victorian melodrama that was probably hard to swallow even when Eliot wrote it. Steve Martin is the Silas Marner character who finds a baby abandoned in the snow and through her finds a new meaning in life. The child's natural father is corrupt politician Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney is Byrne's wife who wants to adopt the child.
Given the material, (Martin did the screenplay himself), they aren't really that bad and it's always good to see Catherine O'Hara, (the local woman with a soft spot for Martin), in any role and at least Martin does manage to inject a degree of comedy into the proceedings that just about alleviates the overall yuckiness. The director was Gillies MacKinnon, better known for somewhat more hard-nosed pictures. This has a 'made-for-tv' feel to it and is much too cosy for my tastes.
Given the material, (Martin did the screenplay himself), they aren't really that bad and it's always good to see Catherine O'Hara, (the local woman with a soft spot for Martin), in any role and at least Martin does manage to inject a degree of comedy into the proceedings that just about alleviates the overall yuckiness. The director was Gillies MacKinnon, better known for somewhat more hard-nosed pictures. This has a 'made-for-tv' feel to it and is much too cosy for my tastes.