Themes: Unlikely Friendships, Starting Over, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Ned Beatty, Liev Schreiber, Campbell Scott, Ian Hart, Peri Gilpin
Release Year: 2000
Country: US
Run Time: 111 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Playwright and character actor Tom Gilroy made his feature directorial debut with this dialogue-driven character study set against the backdrop of the changing seasons. Liev Schreiber plays Paul, a short-fused ex-con who finds unlikely comfort, stability, and camaraderie when he takes an odd job in park maintenance. On his first day, he's teamed with Murph (Ned Beatty), a groundskeeping veteran who manages to defuse an outburst between Paul and their snide supervisor (Campbell Scott). Paul sticks with the job, and, as the months pass, he and Murph work their way through events both mundane and monumental, all the while sharing their hopes, regrets, and ambitions. Shot in sequence over a one-year period, Spring Forward received a third-place mention for best first feature at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Review
Neatly sidestepping the usual indie ineptitude, writer/director Tom Gilroy's intimate, static character study is the kind of film that uses its low budget to an advantage, mining emotions that a larger, more complicated shoot might have obscured. Spring Forward's set-up is resolutely uncommercial: two men, from different generations, talking about their lives over the course of the four seasons. Gilroy is a character actor, and as such, this is resolutely an actor's picture. But unlike other actors-turned-directors, Gilroy never allows his cast to grandstand, and the film is free of the sort of interminable, "improvisational" long takes and stage-bound business that hobbles most performer-oriented pictures. Better yet, the real-time setting of the picture allows leads Ned Beatty and, in particular, Liev Schreiber to make palpable emotional growth over the course of the film; it's that rare instance where a filmmaking method actually benefits an actor's method. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Campbell Scott - Fredrickson; Ian Hart - Fran; Peri Gilpin - Georgia; Bill Raymond - Regan, Don; Catherine Kellner - Dawn; Hallee Hirsh - Hope
Credit
Lucio Seixas - Art Director, Liev Schreiber - Associate Producer, Kevin Chinoy - Associate Producer, Bonnie Finnegan - Casting, Catherine Marie Thomas - Costume Designer, Tom Gilroy - Director, James Lyons - Editor, Michael Stipe - Executive Producer, Caroline Kaplan - Executive Producer, Jonathan Sehring - Executive Producer, Susan Block - Production Designer, Tom Gilroy - Producer, Gill Holland - Producer, Paul S. Mezey - Producer, Jim McKay - Producer, Tom Gilroy - Screenwriter
Spring Forward is the story of the burgeoning friendship between two very different men, Murphy and Paul, who work for the parks department in a quaint New England town. Paul is a short-tempered, ex-convict recently released from prison for armed robbery, who is exploring his spiritual side hoping for atonement and a second chance. On his first day working in parks maintenance he is partnered with Murphy, a veteran groundskeeper, facing his advancing age and impending retirement. The day gets off to a rough start when Paul clashes with their snide supervisor and loses his cool, announces he is quitting and stalks off into the woods berating himself for always ruining everything. Murphy follows him, defuses Paul's outburst and convinces him to stay.
Against the backdrop of the changing seasons the relationship between the men strengthens and develops more as father and son, poignant in contrast to Murphy's relationship with his dying homosexual son, whose impending death causes Murphy to doubt his past as a father and a man. Working together through mundane days and personal crisis they share their lives, hopes, ambitions and regrets, as Paul learns to find stability and calm in his life and Murphy achieves acceptance and forgiveness for his mistakes.
Reception
The reviews for Spring Forward were mainly favorable, and it has achieved a rating of 80% on rottentomatoes.com.[2] It won third place mention for the Discovery Award honoring Best First Film at the 1999 Toronto film festival,[3], won the Gold award for Independent Theatrical Feature Films (Drama) at the 2000 WorldFest in Houston and the Producer's Award at the 2001 Independent Spirit Awards.[4]
