To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996)

Excellent but underrated film

best movie i've ever seen.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Have you ever had someone very close in your life, perhaps loved, and then that person was suddenly removed from your life forever through an accident? Were you so attached, that you couldn't move on, that you still felt that person close to you? What if you still saw that person, would it be a ghost, or a figment of your imagination. This sets the strong foundation for To Gillian, a movie that means well, but that's about it. Strong performances from the leads, however, the emotional level that this is taken to is about the only strong point of the movie. Everything else, including the story line, is incredibly weak, and unfortunately it brings down the rating for me. It's a shame, because I really liked the movie, however, there are just too many weak points in the film to bring a rating any higher then a 5 for me.

I was hoping to give a 7 or an 8 to this movie, because of the sensitivity and caring that it embodied and illustrated. The acting was good from the entire cast. Everything was going along fine until David's daughter, Rachael, changed her mind and decided to go live with her aunt and uncle. That was an extremely cruel, unexplained and unwarranted twist in the plot that came with no warning.If the producer of this movie wanted to play that black card at the end of the movie, they needed to supply some context...Some reasons why. We see no real reason for the young woman to make this decision: Leaving her dad all alone at a time when he he needs her the most. Indeed, she should have known that her leaving could bring on another suicide attempt by her father.Her going to go live with that "bee with an itch on the end" was unacceptable to me, and ruined a perfectly good movie and one that could have been great. The young lady should have fought for her dad tooth-and-nail. She should have believed him that he does indeed commune with the spirit of her mother.The scene that re-inforces the absurdity of the final decision by Rachael is when Wendy Crewson's and Kathy Baker's characters are on the beach one night and The former defends David's behavior and opposes the latter's intrusiveness: Kevin: Imagine him losing his daughter for taking long walks on the beach.Esther: It's not just that.Kevin: Then what is it? Is there something else you're not telling me?Esther: NoKevin: Then I don't see his crime.I have a philosophical objection to the movie, as well: Nowhere in To Gillian is it even suggested or hinted that there is a possibility that David might be perfectly sane and that spirits of loved ones are sometimes able to communicate with us. When his daughter selfishly drop-kicked him like that with no warning or reason (while she was hung-over), I just wonder what could have been.The movie could have had a great ending with the daughter urging her dad to allow her to go along with him on his beach walks so that the mother's spirit could come through to her, too. The daughter should have fought with the aunt.., physically, and thrown her out of their home. Instead, we get a very black and disturbing ending to a movie that had so much potential.

To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996): Dir: Michael Pressman / Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter Gallagher, Claire Danes, Kathy Baker, Bruce Altman: Confusing film starring Peter Gallagher whose wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer dies in a sailing accident. After a year he begins to see her image leaving those around him to voice concerns on his parental rights. Pfeiffer appears numerous times including a confusing dream sequence. Miserable screenplay with an uninspiring ending. Directing by Michael Pressman is dreadful with Pfeiffer completely wasted in a role of no given goal. What is she attempting to prove here? Perhaps messing with her widowed husband is some sort of kick. Why not do something positive, like leave the film and find somebody elses birthday to screw up? Gallagher is the one sensible casting seeing that he plays a guy struggling with the death of his wife. The downfall is that he is screwed over by his greedy pig-headed so- called friends. Claire Danes has nightmares and does other weird sh*t that involves appearing in this film. Kathy Baker plays one of those friends that you do not invite back again. She desires to take child custody away from Gallagher because he is grieving. What kind of selfish tyrant does that? Theme regards dealing with death. Someone should send Gillian a decent screenplay for her 38th birthday. Score: 2 ½ / 10

When I discovered that David E. Kelley wrote the script for Gillian, it's flaws seem to have made a bit more sense for while I've rarely been privy to such notable TV shows like The Practice, Boston Legal, and Chicago Hope, it became clear that writing dramas that don't pertain to law or medicine isn't his forte and the result is a film in which no elements really work.Of the seven primary characters in Gillian, only three really matter: David (Peter Gallagher), a man who, after two years, still isn't over the death of his wife Gillian (Michelle Pfieffer); Rachel (Clare Danes), his daughter, whose relationship with her father isn't too estranged; and Esther (Kathy Baker), David's sister-in-law, who's determined to remove Rachel from David's care for fear it is unhealthy for the girl. The remaining characters bring little substance to the film. Paul (Bruce Altman), Esther's husband, is aware of his wife's intentions and quietly tolerates his them despite objections while simultaneously voicing his sexual frustrations in the presence of young beautiful women such as Cindy (Laurie Fortier), Rachel's friend, who's equally frustrated and so bored that she uses her sex appeal to taunt men for fun. Kevin (Wendy Crewson), is an acquaintance of Esther and Paul's who was brought by them (unbeknownst to her and David) to the family's gathering for no other reason than to take David's mind off Gillian. Upon this realization, Kevin learns that her presence is unneeded despite being amiably tolerated (at best) by everyone else, especially Esther, who spends much of the first half of the film using Kevin as her pawn to convince David to get over Gillian. Fortunately, Kevin's knowledge that she's unneeded dissuades her from doing anything more than just being present throughout the film. Finally, there's Gillian who appears as an apparition just to remind us of how un-over her David really is and that "Rachel comes first,".The basic conflict of the story lies in Esther's belief that David's perpetual grief has made him an unsuitable parent for Rachel, which she bases solely on a slip in Rachel's grades. Rachel doesn't think so, which is why she defends her father. But the conflict for viewers revolves around Esther, who cannot sympathize at all with David's grief which pertains entirely to the death of her sister! What is wrong with this woman that she's adamant about about speeding up his grief process by threatening to take his daughter away from him despite proclaiming to care for him and not sparing a moment of heartache for the loss of her sister? We never find out and after a night during which Rachel goes to bed drunk and has a nightmare featuring Gillian, the conflict is resolved when Rachel decides to go live with Esther and Paul and "let her mother be dead,". Further (and most predictable) resolution occurs during the final 10 minutes when David decides to get over Gillian, move in the Paul and Esther, and start putting Rachel first. It's far too little too late.Since Gillian does contain a good cast with a notable performance from Danes, I gave it four out of ten stars but the talents of these people are ultimately lost in this poorly written melodrama that might elicit some tears and sighs from the audience, but is mostly a film about a rivalry between in-laws that is devoid of the compassion usually felt after the death of a loved one.P.S. By the way, David E. Kelley, stick to televised legal and medical dramas. Your talents and know-how as a writer and producer are most obvious and bankable in those fields.