Themes: Single Parents, Starting Over, Fathers and Sons
Main Cast: Vince Vaughn, Joey Lauren Adams, Monica Potter, Bobby Moat, Devon Sawa
Release Year: 1999
Country: US
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Vince Vaughn stars in this drama about a single father trying to balance career ambitions against personal responsibilities. In A Cool Dry Place, Vaughn plays Russell, a lawyer in a small town in Kansas who has been raising his five-year-old son Calvin (Bobby Moat) on his own since his wife Kate (Monica Potter) left him without notice. After a year and a half as a single man, Russell is starting to rebuild his personal life and begins dating Beth (Joey Lauren Adams), a pretty veterinarian's assistant who has taken a shine to him. However, Russell's new relationship runs into rough waters when Kate returns, looking to re-establish her relationship with Calvin, and Russell is offered a high-paying job with a law firm in Dallas, TX. Director John N. Smith, best known for Dangerous Minds, shot the Kansas sequences on location in Ontario, Canada; Dallas, however, plays itself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
There are so few tearjerkers that can make the male of the species reach for a tissue that when a good one comes along the temptation is to trumpet it from the tallest box of Kleenex. A Cool, Dry Place is one such film. This even-handed family drama has "chick flick" written all over it, but Vince Vaughn is so engaging and manly (he's a high-powered attorney who coaches little league basketball on the side) that men will be drawn into the story along with the female viewers. No doubt there are plenty of single men who have found themselves trying to balance the emotional needs of a young family with the time and energy required to excel at the job; add to that the delicate issue of introducing a new love to a young son and dealing with a perhaps psychotic ex-wife. Director John N. Smith and the screenwriters have skillfully updated the Kramer Vs. Kramer divorce saga for late-'90s audiences, planting emotional landmines that catch the viewer by surprise. The seemingly sensitive Monica Potter becomes a shrewish threat to Vaughn and his beguiling five-year-old son, convincingly played by Bobby Moat; Joey Lauren Adams, who in lesser roles can set an audience's teeth on edge, is so convincing as the giving, caring new girlfriend that one has no wish other than to see Vaughn end up with her. But this isn't The Courtship of Eddie's Father by any means, and the choices Vaughn has to make are difficult and heartbreaking. See A Cool, Dry Place with a friend -- and a hankie. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
Vlasta Svoboda - Art Director, Debra Zane - Casting, David Coatsworth - Co-producer, Denise Cronenberg - Costume Designer, Myron Hoffert - First Assistant Director, John N. Smith - Director, Susan Shipton - Editor, Curt Sobel - Composer (Music Score), Donald Graham Burt - Production Designer, Jean Lepine - Cinematographer, Katie Jacobs - Producer, Gail Mutrux - Producer, David Lee - Sound/Sound Designer, Matthew McDuffie - Screenwriter
A Cool, Dry Place is a 1998 movie adapted by Matthew McDuffie from the novel Dance Real Slow by Michael Grant Jaffe. It was directed by John N. Smith. The movie stars Vince Vaughn, Monica Potter, Joey Lauren Adams and Bobby Moat.
Synopsis
Russell Durrell (Vaughn) is an ambitious young lawyer with a fast moving career and great potential. Suddenly, however, his wife Kate (Potter) leaves him and their 5-year-old son (Moat), and Durrell moves with his son back to his small hometown in Kansas. Just as he is putting his life together and has found a new potential lover (Adams), his wife shows up, demanding custody of their son.
Background
A large part of the film was not shot in Kansas, but rather in a little town in Ontario called Lindsay (now part of the city of Kawartha Lakes).
