While driving on a remote highway, indecisive architect Vincent Eastman is torn between reuniting with his estranged frigid calculating wife Sally or taking up with his lover Olivia Marshak,... Read allWhile driving on a remote highway, indecisive architect Vincent Eastman is torn between reuniting with his estranged frigid calculating wife Sally or taking up with his lover Olivia Marshak, a magazine writer.While driving on a remote highway, indecisive architect Vincent Eastman is torn between reuniting with his estranged frigid calculating wife Sally or taking up with his lover Olivia Marshak, a magazine writer.
- Awards
- 2 wins
- Meaghan Eastman
- (as a different name)
- Van Driver's Son
- (as Keegan Macintosh)
- Semi-Driver
- (as Alan C. Peterson)
- Step Magazine
- (as Dave Hurtubise)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaSharon Stone rang director Mark Rydell repeatedly, begging for a part in the film. Rydell automatically assumed that she was after the part of the mistress, and was quite surprised when Stone revealed that she wanted to play the frigid wife.
- GoofsThe letter Vincent wrote to Olivia in his car is in different handwriting than the one shown later near the end of the film.
- Quotes
Vincent Eastman: [while on payphone] ... I'm crazy about you. I've always been crazy about you. I'm always gonna be crazy about you. Oh by the way, this is Vincent. Vincent Eastman.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Siskel & Ebert: Memo to the Academy - 1994 (1994)
- SoundtracksSonata in G Minor - First Movement
Written by Johann Sebastian Bach (as J.S. Bach)
Performed by Irena Grafenauer, Maria Graf and David Geringas
Courtesy of Philips Classics
By Arrangement with PolyGram Special Markets
Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, and Lolita Davidovich breathe life into the three corners of a love triangle. Stone is especially good as the calculating Sally, whose formidable personality holds together only at the fast pace of high-end social and professional success. Gere manifests the ambiguity of a man who must choose not only between women but between parts of his soul. Spirited Davidovich is very appealing as a vital woman deeply connected to fundamental contentedness and freedom.
Some philosophy is in order when considering this intimate, thoughtful film. It portrays various aspects of the human condition without embodying them. For instance, Richard Gere plays a man in the grip of profound indecision, but director Mark Rydell's hand is sure and his intent clear (`Whatever you're going to do, do it!'). The movie compresses the many small but meaningful moments that make up a lifetime into a taut montage of images flashing before the viewer's eyes, evoking the close link between life, time, and death. It shows how the simplest, smallest gesture can trigger an epiphany of profound meaning as someone struggles to find clarity in their life. Best of all, the movie illustrates how, even in tragedy, everyone can come away with something positive worth clinging to, whether it's a message on an answering machine, a hurtful letter undelivered, or a plunge into the depths of peace.
- ulmerspirit
- Dec 15, 2002
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Things of Life
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $45,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $21,355,893
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $7,818,502
- Jan 23, 1994
- Gross worldwide
- $21,355,893