RETURNING LILY (TEMPTED)

US, 2003, 100 minutes, Colour.
Virginia Madson, Lainie Kazan, Jason Momoa, Kieu Chinh, Andrew Mc Farlane, Brooke Harman, Mikhael Wilder, James Dean.
Directed by Maggie Greenwald.

Returning Lily is an emotional story set in Hawaii. Virginia Madson portrays a woman, married with two children, who had a surrogate mother in a woman from Hawaii. When she dies, she asks that her ashes be taken back for a healing ceremony in Hawaii.

The Hawaiian locations were actually filmed in New South Wales.

Virginia Madson brings her distinctive charm to the central role. Lainie Kazan is very subdued as the Hawaiian woman who turns out to be her mother. Model and actor, Jason Momoa, is the man who opens her eyes to the beauty of Hawaii. Andrew Mc Farlane plays the husband.

The film is pretty to look at, emotional to watch, interesting in that the central character discovers that the woman that she dislikes is her birth mother and the reasons for her being abandoned by her – and her husband’s family sending her away from Boston.

There are also some themes about children. The elder girl is fifteen as is the son of Jason Momoa. Problems about adolescence are raised – with solutions coming from family, understanding, listening.

The film was directed by Maggie Greenwald who directed such films as Song Catcher and The Ballad of Little Jo. The musical score was written by her husband David Mansfield (Heaven’s Gate).

1.A popular kind of story? For the television audience? Emotional?

2.The title, the focus on Lily, Emma and her task? The alternate title with Tempted – and the focus on Emma and Kala?

3.The opening in Boston: the tensions in the family, Mike and his being busy, contracts? Emma and her paralegal work, the demands, the alienation of Jamie, Neil and his intellectual approach to life? The news about Lily’s death? The message for Emma to take Lily’s ashes back to Hawaii? Mike seeing it as inconvenient? The children’s reaction? Her determination to go?

4.Emma, her age, background, her not having seen Lily for years? Her focus on her own life? Her sadness at Lily’s death? Kala meeting her at the airport? Her staying in Lily’s house? Meeting with Kehau, Kehau and her resentment towards Emma? The meeting with Julia, Julia’s sternness, unwilling to talk to Emma? Kala telling her the truth about Julia being her mother? The emotional tensions, Emma and her refusal to discuss things with Julia? Julia reaching out? Her encounters with Kala, on the beach, his persuading her to swim, in the grotto, her sense of freedom, the kiss, the momentary temptation?

5.Julia, the background of her marriage, the family not wanting her to stay in Boston? Lily and her thinking that she should stay and bring up the daughter, doing a favour for Julia? Julia and the ownership of the land? Refusal to discuss with Emma, breaking down, going to the meal, discussions with Jamie? The search for the missing children? The bonding with Emma? Her confession at Lily’s ceremony, Emma overhearing it, her apology and reconciliation?

6.Mike, busy, the decision to come to Hawaii? Wary about Emma, the relationship with Kala, seeing them outside the office? Jamie and her age, flirting with the boy, her father’s severity? Her hair, piercings? Sullen? The clashes with her mother on Hawaii? Her going to see Julia, the talk, meeting Billy, talking things over with him, the walk, the accident, the search? Her dancing Hawaiian-style at the funeral?

7.Neil, intellectual, always asking questions?

8.Kala, his mother, his work, reliable, the fifteen-year-old son? Billy and breaking and entering? Kala and his attraction towards Emma, the swim, the kiss? His work, the problem with the ownership and the water? The documents? Confrontation with the entrepreneur? The farewell to Emma?

9.Billy, the accident, talking with Jamie? The possibility of change?

10.The issue of ownership, the water on the land, the industry with the flowers and perfume? The documents? The accident and the finding of the burial place? The saving of the property?

11.Popular themes, family, relationships, tensions, development and the environment?