| The Piano Man's Daughter | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Kevin Sullivan |
| Written by | novel Timothy Findley screenplay Kevin Sullivan |
| Starring | Wendy Crewson Christian Campbell |
| Music by | Peter Breiner |
| Cinematography | Robert Saad |
| Studio | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) |
| Release date(s) | 22 September 2003 (Canada) |
| Running time | 180 min. |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
The Piano Man's Daughter is a television movie, adapted in 2003 by Sullivan Entertainment from the 1995 novel by Timothy Findley.
Rights to the novel's film adaptation were originally purchased by Whoopi Goldberg. Deciding that as a Canadian novel it would be most appropriate to work with a Canadian film studio, Goldberg produced the film in collaboration with Kevin Sullivan.
Contents |
A young man must deal with several generations of madness and familial intrigue in this screen adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Timothy Findley. Charlie Kilworth (Christian Campbell) is a young man whose mother, Lily (Stockard Channing), is the daughter of Frederick Wyatt (R.H. Thomson), the owner of a well-known piano manufacturing company. Lily is also a free-spirited and unstable woman, who bore Charlie out of wedlock, has had a number of lovers over the years, and has an unsettling fascination with fire. Lily's mother Ede (Wendy Crewson) has put her daughter in a mental hospital on several occasions, and is considering having Lily lobotomized. Charlie, meanwhile, has had affairs with a number of women but has never settled down with anyone; working as an events coordinator at a resort hotel, Charlie becomes infatuated with Alex Lamont (Sarah Strange), the singer in a dance band Charlie has booked into the ballroom. Lily urges her son to get married and raise a family, but Charlie isn't so sure he's ready for a lifetime commitment, and Alex becomes frustrated by Charlie's inability to take their relationship seriously. Meanwhile, Ede and Frederick have decided that Lily needs to be permanently committed to an institution; Charlie insists that they send her to a comfortable private facility, but then discovers that a mysterious benefactor has been supporting Lily for years, and Ede and Frederick have decided if Lily is to be in a private institution, then the generous stranger must be the one who pays for it. Surprisingly, The Piano Man's Daughter was co-produced by noted comic actress Whoopi Goldberg.[1]
The film's cast includes Wendy Crewson, Christian Campbell, Stockard Channing, Marnie McPhail, R. H. Thomson, Sarah Strange, Susan Coyne, Tamara Hope and John Alcorn.