CATCH A FALLING STAR
US, 2000, 97 minutes, Colour.
Sela Ward, Rebecca Jenkins, John Slattery, Jane Curtin, Andrew Jackson.
Directed by Bob Clark.
Catch a Falling Star is a popular television film about an actress who has some kind of breakdown – at least in the sense that pressure has got to her because of her stardom, her tantrums, her relationships. During a crisis in filming, she walks out and gets lost in a forest, finally coming out on a road and getting a lift to the nearest town. She decides to stay there for a while, getting a job, falling in love with the mill manager, making friends with a waitress, having something of an ordinary life. Eventually she goes back to the filming, breaks with her fiancé, invests her money in the mill – and happy ever after marriage.
The film was directed by Canadian Bob Clark who made some horror films in the 70s, Black Christmas and Dead of Night, went more upmarket with Murder by Decree and Tribute, but he also made the Porky series. In his later years he tended to make slight telemovies like this one.
1.A popular entertainment? The fascination with stars and their public life, private lives? The effect on stars – and a time for opting out?
2.The title and its irony, as referring to Sydney and her collapse?
3.The settings for film-making, the agencies, sets? The forest, the American mill town? The ordinary world and the fantasy world? The musical score?
4.Sydney Clarke, performance, soap opera, the trailers, the scenes, her tantrums? Discovering Ryan with the stand-in? Her anger, going off the set, lost in the woods, the night, onto the road, the hitch-hiking? The meeting with Ben? Meeting Joyce, their friendship and clicking, getting the job, able to talk freely, her alias of Cheryl Belson? Her popularity with the men at the mill, nursing background? Splinters and other difficulties? The friendship with Ben, the attraction, going to the cinema – and his seeing the trailer, his anger? Getting rid of her? The men protesting and her going back? The continued friendship with Joyce, the work, the auditions – and Joyce’s disillusionment with Carter and his not casting her? Carter and his obtuseness and telling that Sydney should not give up her day job after the audition? The contact with her agent, finally going back, a changed person? Agreeable? Ben and his coming to the set, her investing in the mill, the marriage, happily ever after?
5.Ben, his work, the mill, the family? His attraction to Cheryl, his going to the cinema, the antagonism? Bringing her back? His helping her with the bowls, talking, the relationship? The end? His talking with the men, unable to give a rise, having to close the mill down?
6.The film world, the director, his exasperation, pandering to the star? Fran as the desperate agent, phone calls, cajoling? Ryan as the leading man, relationship with Sydney, the planned wedding, with the stand-in? His relief when she called the wedding off?
7.The world of the mill, ordinary people, the men, the work, Pete and his wife, pregnant, the need for a raise, difficulties? The closing of the mill?
8.Popular ingredients for a popular kind of story – a kind of Danielle Steel in the film world and the world of industry?
