Autumn Tale
What Movies Look Like This Fall
By Belinda Acosta, Fri., Sept. 21, 2001
Motion Pictures Targeted at a Female Demographic Aged 18 to -- Fine, Whatever: Chick Flicks
Break out the Kleenex: John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale star as New Yorkers who, smitten one snowy night, decide to let fate decide if they are meant to be in Serendipity. Ten years pass with no contact, but a lingering "what if?" prompts them to seek each other out. Their search for each other kicks into high gear days before one is to marry. Peter Chelsom directs. (Oct. 5)... Drew Barrymore gets wrapped up with the wrong guy (no, not Tom Green) in Riding in Cars With Boys, the film adaptation of Beverly Donofrio's memoir of the same name. At 15, Donofrio (Barrymore) gets pregnant, raises a kid, and later pursues a successful writing career. Just like in real life. Well, it happened to Donofrio. Penny Marshall (Big, Preacher's Wife) directs. (Oct. 19)... The search for the "real thing" is the subject of Ed Burns' new feature, Sidewalks of New York. Burns (The Brothers McMullen) and former girlfriend Heather Graham, along with Stanley Tucci and Brittany Murphy, are lovelorn New Yorkers wondering, in interrelated stories, why true love alludes them. Burns directs from his script. (fall)... Actress Christine Lahti makes her feature film directorial debut with My First Mister, starring Leelee Sobieski and Albert Brooks. Brooks is a cranky, middle-aged shop owner; Sobieski is a Goth girl looking for work. Brooks tells her to scram; she washes the sooty make-up off her eyes and he hires her. Their unusual working relationship develops into affection. (Nov. 2)... The Affair of the Necklace sounds like a love story, but it's more of a historical drama about the life of French Countess Jeanne de la Motter Valois. Hilary Swank -- in her first lead role since her Oscar-winning turn in Boys Don't Cry -- stars as the countess, who searches for what she believes to be her royal destiny in 18th-century France. Her quest involves her in personal and political intrigue that includes Marie Antoinette, the French Revolution, and the titular diamond necklace. Usually demonized in French accounts, the Countess is given a sympathetic treatment in this Charles Shyer film. (Oct. 19)
