When Michael McCann is thrown over by the woman he loves, he becomes something of a misanthrope and a miser, spending all of his spare money on collectible gold coins. Living in the same town is an affluent family with two sons: John and Tanny. Tanny's a wild boy, whom John cannot control, and one night he breaks into McCann's house, and steals the gold and disappears, which nearly confirms McCann's distrust of mankind. But then, a mysterious young woman dies in the snow outside McCann's house, and her small daughter makes her way to McCann's house and into McCann's life and heart.
Reviews
Michael McCann (Steve Martin)'s pregnant wife leaves him after telling him that the baby isn't his. He becomes a recluse who collects gold coins for stability. John Newland (Gabriel Byrne) is an ambitious politician with a proper wife Nancy (Laura Linney), an unreliable brother Tanny (Stephen Baldwin) and baby mama Marsha Swanson. John tries to buy Marsha off. After a car accident, Tanny runs off with the money and steals McCann's gold coins. Marsha ends up frozen to death in front of McCann's house leaving him with the girl. John Newland hides from his responsibility and McCann adopts her as Mathilda McCann. April Simon (Catherine O'Hara) is McCann's friendly neighbor.Steve Martin adapts 19th-century novelist George Eliot's book Silas Marner. The film has a sad surrealism which may not fit Steve Martin's public persona. The biggest problem is that the script struggles to bend the plot to fit. There is a bit too much happenstance and coincidences. The emotions and motives are sometimes awkward and wrong-headed. The movie does have some great moments of comedy and warmth that is reminiscent of Parenthood. The dramatic parts of the story needs a little rethinking. The trial is not particularly fun or dramatic. If only the moments of sweet humor can be transplanted into a better written story.
In a departure from his usual roles, Steve Martin plays a lonely man who adopts a girl after she happens into his house. "A Simple Twist of Fate" is an almost mystifying movie, and a very good one. While there are certainly some funny parts, it's mainly about how the entry of this girl into his existence changes the course of his life, and also turns out to have a link to something else in his life. The movie has really good character development. Along with Martin, there's Gabriel Byrne as a slimy politician, Laura Linney as his unfulfilled wife, and Catherine O'Hara as a shopkeeper who helps Martin. This is a movie that I very much recommend to everyone.
Something very different for Steve Martin as he portrays a man who divorced his wife when he found out that the child they expected was not his.Enter another child in his life when a young woman dies on her way to the baby girl's wealthy political father. The father, who knew this was his child when he saw the dead woman, made no effort to claim the child as his. Instead, the child stays with Martin who loves her dearly and takes care of her in a manner of a true parent.10 years later, the real father, Gabriel Byrne and his wife, Laura Linney, are childless and when Martin brings the child along with him to deliver furniture, Byrne confesses to all that he is the father of the child and a custody battle ensues.These custody battles are very cliché in movies. Of course, everyone is wooed by the child's kind words for Martin. The ending is unexpected, but a good one. Everyone gets what they deserve.
As we all know, the real book, "Silas Marner" was first published in 1861 by "George Eliot". Well, in the time the book was published, women weren't "supposed" to write books like this. George Eliot's real name is Mary Ann Evans 1819-1880. Her understanding of the "Human condition" and the effects of loneliness on a person are greatly adapted into the book. If you read the novel, even though the wording of the book is different than modern English, well... that's part of the charm of the book. It takes you into a time when that's how they spoke. When considering the era of the book, and once again the adaptation of the movie "A Simple Twist of Fate", I believe that Steve Martin did an excellent job. Although... there's no substitution for the original work.
