Main Cast: Alexis Bledel, William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Scott Bairstow, Ben Kingsley
Release Year: 2002
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Natalie Babbitt's award winning book for children comes to the screen in a lavish adaptation from Walt Disney Pictures. Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel) is a girl in her early teens growing up in the small rural town of Winesap in 1914. Winnie's parents (Victor Garber and Amy Irving) are loving but overprotective, and Winnie longs for a life of greater freedom and adventure. One day, while exploring the nearby woods, Winnie gets lost, but she has the good fortune to happen upon the Tuck Family, who live nearby - mother Mae (Sissy Spacek), father Angus (William Hurt), and sons Jesse (Jonathan Jackson) and Miles (Scott Bairstow). The Tucks are warm and caring people, and Winnie feels right at home with them; she also finds herself developing a serious crush on Jesse, and isn't so sure she wants to return; meanwhile, her parents become increasingly distraught as they search for their missing daughter. But in time Winnie discovers there's a secret behind the seemingly idyllic lives of the Tuck Family; they have discovered a magical spring on their property, and anyone who drinks from it will never grow old and never die. While to Winnie this sounds like a wonderful prospect, the Tucks have come to understand this is as much of a curse as a blessing, especially when she realizes Jesse is considerably older than she is. The Tucks also have to contend with the presence of the sinister Man In The Yellow Suit (Ben Kingsley), who wishes to buy their property and make a fortune from their "fountain of youth." Tuck Everlasting was directed by Jay Russell, who previously directed the acclaimed family film My Dog Skip. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Raymond Kluga - Art Director, Mary Gail Artz - Casting, Barbara Cohen - Casting, Scott Cunningham - Choreography, Carol Ransey - Costume Designer, John Rusk - First Assistant Director, Jay Russell - Director, Jay Cassidy - Editor, Armyan Bernstein - Executive Producer, William Teitler - Executive Producer, Thomas A. Bliss - Executive Producer, Max Wong - Executive Producer, Deborah A. Forte - Executive Producer, William Ross - Composer (Music Score), Tony Burrough - Production Designer, James L. Carter - Cinematographer, Marc Abraham - Producer, Jane Startz - Producer, Catherine Davis - Set Designer, Kirk A. Francis - Sound/Sound Designer, Jim V. Hart - Screenwriter, Jeffrey Lieber - Screenwriter, Marty Layton - Additional Cinematography, Stephen Flick - Supervising Sound Editor, Charles Maynes - Supervising Sound Editor, Natalie Babbitt - Book Author
After meeting a man in a yellow suit (a colour associated with decadence at the turn of the twentieth century; see Yellow Book), fifteen year old Winnie Foster, stifled by the formality of her proper Victorian English life and domineering mother, escapes into the woods only to get lost. She happens upon Jesse Tuck—a boy full of life and adventure who's unlike anyone she's ever met—and eventually, over the space of about two days, falls in love. At their first meeting Jesse stops Winnie from drinking from the spring. He takes her to his family. He claims to be 104 years old but Winnie does not believe him until he approximates it to seventeen years.
After visiting the graveyard and talking to the priest and finding no Tuck graves, the man in the yellow suit goes to see the Fosters as he is suspected of kidnapping Winnie.
Jesse tells Winnie of the magic of the spring. Miles Tuck, Jesse’s brother, tells Winnie about his wife leaving him with their children, accusing Miles of dealing with the Devil when he reveals his immortality. His wife died an old woman in an insane asylum. Miles was unable to die even from being shot in the Siege of Veracruz, Jesse had fallen from a great height and walked away, even their horse which had drunk the water was not injured when shot.
Tuck (the father) talks with Winnie alone, saying that they’re not living they "just are, like rocks stuck in the side of a stream ... do not fear death but rather the unlived life. You do not have to live forever you just have to live." The pair are espied by the man in the yellow suit who then returns to the Fosters and bargains his knowledge for ownership of the woods and the spring which he does not mention. He goes to the Tucks, tells them his grandmother met a woman in an insane asylum who knew the tune the man in the yellow suit had been whistling throughout the film, a tune Miles recognised as from his wife's music box. The man in the yellow suit knows the secret of the spring and holds a pistol to Winnie. Mae Tuck hits him on the head with a shotgun butt and he dies in Winnie's arms.
A search party arrives, Jesse and Miles escape. Tuck and Mae burn down their house and gaoled. Winnie helps them escape. Jesse wants her to come along but Tuck says it's too dangerous. Jesse says he'll love her "till the day I die" and to drink from the spring, he'll be back for her. Winnie's grandmother dies and the family leaves town thereafter.
In the modern era, Jesse rides into town on a motor bike. He travels to the woods and visits the headstone "Winnie Foster Jackson / Dear Wife ~ Dear Mother / 1899 - 1999" and the voice over reveals that Winnie followed Tuck's advice and lived her life well.
Differences between the movie and the book
In the book...
In the film...
Winnie is almost 11
She is 15
Winnie's grandmother doesn't die
She does
Winnie's gravestone says 1870-1948 (died 78).
It says 1899-1999 (Died 100)
Winnie runs away because she's tired of being cooped up
She runs away because she's going to be sent to a boarding school
To save Mae, Miles removes the window and Winnie switches places with Mae
Winnie tells the inspector that the family who "kidnapped" her is back. She then grabs the keys and lets Mae escape.
Only Mae is sent to the gallows
Tuck is sent, too.
Mae and Tuck visit Winnie's grave (in 1950)
Only Jesse does (in or around 2002)
Mae, Jesse, and Miles come to "kidnap" Winnie
Only Miles does
Winnie "adores" Jesse, while Jesse also seems to see her as a love interest, and plans to marry her when she turns seventeen
