A Simple Twist of Fate (1994)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I thought this was a perfectly-good movie, but am confounded regarding the second-to-last scene, where-in the politician's brother's skeleton is found, along with the gold coins he stole from Mr. McCann (in a "drained lake?"). What relation did the finding of the skeleton have to do with the custody battle? I paid close attention while watching the movie, and still, fail to make a connection. This one incongruous scene caused me to detract one star in my rating of A Simple Twist of Fate. I do appreciate the movie's characters being multi-dimensional. Mr. McCann is both eternally-wounded by his former relationship and ecstatically happy with his new one. He is both a hard-drinker and a very responsible parent (did he give up the booze?).The senator is not single-dimensional, either: Although he seems like an ambitious, material-driven capitalist, fate brings his daughter back to him and his paternal instinct, he finds, is still intact. He actually has a bit of a heart.The acting in A Simple Twist of Fate was good, maybe especially that of Catherine O'Hara. The message of this movie seems to be that love can heal your heart and make you whole again.The scene with the skeleton...I have no idea how that is pertinent.

Steve Martin is always pretty good, but the story is just so predictable, as is the cutsie musical scene and overall cheesiness... I do like that there's nothing really bad in the movie... It's something safe to let a young teenager watch, and a teenage girl who hasn't already seen this story rehashed in a thousand different movies, would probably appreciate it more than myself... No real symbolism or propaganda to speak of in this movie, so that's good... If you're wondering why I would make such a comment, checkout some of my other reviews where i break down the symbolism and propaganda I find in many of today's most popular movies... I like the older movies like this because more often than not, there's not much in the way of symbolism or propaganda, what you see is what you get... It's not like that today, it seems like half the movies they make these days are actually laden with demoralizing mind-tricks... Well, that's 10+ lines... God bless y'all...

This movie was a real disappointment. Steve Martin did okay in the lead role about a man whose wife tells him that their unborn child belongs to another man and they divorce and he becomes a recluse who drinks and counts his gold coins...but it was hard to see past the many years of outrageous comedy Martin did to take him too seriously here. The acting and dialogue were just awful. Linney and Bryne were wooden and lacked any depth whatsoever and I didn't care about anything that happened to them. The little girl, who rarely uttered a word (which seemed a bit unrealistic for any child)was played by so many child actors it was hard to tell it was even the same character in any particular scene. Overall it was mediocre and I would not recommend it.

I missed the first two or three minutes that would have included the credits and so did not realize that I would be watching George Eliot's moving novel. Although the movie was thoroughly modernized it took very little time for me to realize what I was watching. -- Much to my surprise and delight. I felt that George Eliot would have loved this movie. I give it a strong recommendation if you have read "Silas Marner". Those who have not, though, may find it contrived.