The Alphabet Project: I is for...

Inventing The Abbotts (1997)

The lives of two closely linked families dangerously intersect in a small Illinois town in the 1950s. Though they are from the wrong side of the tracks, the working class brothers Jacey (Billy Crudup) and Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix) are in love with the wealthy and beautiful Abbott sisters. Shy and quiet Doug, who worships his womanizing brother, has eyes for the iconoclastic Pamela (Liv Tyler), but Jacey's affections are more calculating: he's interested in whichever Abbott sister is interested in him. At first, this is the wild sister Eleanor (Jennifer Connelly), but eventually Jacey sets his sights on the unhappily married oldest sister Alice (Joanna Going). For Jacey, his conquest of the Abbotts is a form of economic revenge, as he believes that Lloyd Abbott (Will Patton), the head of the family, stole a patent that made him rich from the Holts' late father, John Charles. When he's eventually revealed as an embittered cad, Jacey's mistreatment of the Abbott girls makes the genuine affection between Doug and Pamela impossible for either family to accept. Delicious hilarity ensues...ummm...Jennifer Connelly.

Trivia: Did I mention Jennifer Connelly is in this movie? Liv Tyler ain't bad either. The narrator is not credited, but is the voice of Michael Keaton.

Well, Kim figured it out at the last minute so I owe her a movie. Let me know what movie you want me to review...Hmm...I have never seen Under The Tuscan Sun...Not that I saying anything, I'm just saying...Did I mention Jennifer Connelly was in this movie? The problem is that she leaves half way through the movie. Dang it. But anyway this was a good solid coming of age movie with Jacey, Eleanor, Doug and Pam still in high school when the movie starts and through college by the end. It was a nice love story.

Next Up: The "J" movie. This Week's Clue: It is one-half Python.

The "I" Guesses:

Identity - Stranded at a desolate Nevada motel during a nasty rainstorm, ten strangers become acquainted with each other when they realize that they're being killed off one by one.

I, Claudius - The history of the Roman Empire as experienced by one of its rulers.

It - Seven youths have to defeat a demonic creature named Pennywise which dresses in a clown suit and terrorizes a 1960's town in Maine.

I Know What You Did Last Summer - Four teens are in great danger one year after their car hits a stranger whose body they dump in the sea.

Innerspace - A hapless store clerk must foil criminals to save the life of the man who, miniaturized in a secret experiment, was accidentally injected into him.

Insomnia -