"Everyday"

Author(s): Pat
Location: NY

"Everyday"

Directed By Alan Ball
Written By Alan Ball
Produced By Tom Hanks and Colin Callender

Main Cast

Alec Baldwin (Daniel McPhearson)
Virginia Madsen (Helen McPhearson)
Bruce Willis (Sam Triscoe)
David Strathairn (Bernard Digiglio)
Edie Falco (Martha Digiglio)
David Morse (Walter Van Patten)
Trevor Morgan (Bryan Triscoe)
Michelle Tractenberg (Mary Digiglio)
Amanda Seyfried (Laura Catrand)
Shawn Pyfrom (Eric Brosckie)
Aimee Teegarden (Alicia McPhearson)
Brittany Snow (Sara Van Patten)
Ryan Kelley (Christopher Digiglio)

Tagline: "Death is something you cry about. Tragedy is what makes you scream"

Synopsis: On a stormy spring night, two cars full of teenagers drive down a winding highway on their way to a party. In one car, Sara Van Patten (Brittany Snow) is driving while her friends, Alicia (Aimee Teegarden) and Christopher (Ryan Kelley), talk in the backseat. In the other car are Bryan (Trevor Morgan), Mary (Michelle Tractenberg), and Laura (Amanda Seyfried). Sara wants to get to the party, so she speeds way past the limit and passes every car she sees. Then, she gets a text message from Bryan, saying that he wants to be with her and she should leave her boyfriend Eric (Shawn Pyfrom), and a semi hits them head on.

Four days later, the town of Briarshaw buries the three young people in the first car. Daniel (Alec Baldwin), Alicia’s father, remains adament on blaming someone for the death of his daughter and he convinces his wife (Virginia Madsen) to interrogate the other kids in order to determine what caused their car to swerve into a truck. But Daniel is all too quick to blame the father of the girl who was driving. Walter Van Patten (David Morse), a convicted sex offender refuses to acknowledge that his daughter was responsible and becomes violent towards Daniel whenever he is accused. In the meantime, Bryan comes forward to his father, Sam (Bruce Willis), that he may have distracted Sara enough for her to crash the car. But Sam wants to keep it quiet so he tells Bryan not to tell anybody after learning of Daniel’s search for answers. Things worsen when Christopher’s parents, Bernard (David Strathairn) and Martha (Edie Falco), decide they wish to sue Walter Van Patten even against the wishes of their daughter, Mary, who misses her brother but does not see revenge as the proper solution.

But somehow Sara’s boyfriend, Eric, finds out that Bryan sent his girlfriend the text that killed her and he tells the world, sending Daniel and the other parents on a tragic path with hopes that the death’s of their children could be reversed if they take revenge on the people involved.

What the Press would say:

“Everyday”, the new film from “American Beauty” scribe Alan Ball, is a heartbreaking tale about coping with tragic loss and making up for past mistakes. Loosely based upon actual events, the film follows the parents of three teenagers who were killed in a fiery car accident. The basic premise of the story is that the McPhearson’s (Alec Baldwin and Virginia Madsen) look for someone to blame for their daughter’s deaths while the father (Bruce Willis) of a boy in another car tries to hide the fact that his son may be at fault. Baldwin and Willis go throughout the movie as best friends but come detached in the final act when the truth comes out. Baldwin’s performance conveys his character’s constant anger so well that one begins to think that it is actually Baldwin’s daughter who has been killed. Bruce Willis takes on a subdued but powerful role as a man who is forced to battle inner demons about seeing his friend’s suffer at his son’s fault. Virginia Madsen shys away from the typical grieving mother to become a sort of villainess who follows the other kids involved and questions them about what really happened. Her cold looks and sinister voice send a shiver down the spine in every frame she is in. David Morse also stands out as the father of the girl driving the doomed car, who is initially blamed for the deaths and suffers the emotional punishment of the other parents while trying to cope with his own grief. Things are made worse for his character in Edie Falco, another grieving mother who wants to sue Morse’s character. She blows the audience away with her sheer voice of sadness and big emotional breakdown scene, which brings more tears than Hilary Swank’s reqeuest for death in “Million Dollar Baby”. Overall, “Everyday” is a tragedy is every form and proves to be one of the saddest and most complex films of all time.

FYC

Best Picture
Best Director-Alan Ball
Best Original Screenplay
Best Actor-Alec Baldwin
Best Actor-Bruce Willis
Best Actress-Virginia Madsen
Best Supporting Actor-David Morse
Best Supporting Actress-Edie Falco