Inventing the Abbotts

R

Released Apr 4, 1997

1 hr. 50 min.

Drama

List

36%

28 Reviews

Tomatometer

51%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

In the 1950s, brothers Jacey (Billy Crudup) and Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix), who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, lovely Abbott sisters. Lady-killer Jacey alternates between Eleanor (Jennifer Connelly) and Alice (Joanna Going), wanting simply to break the hearts of rich young women. But sensitive Doug has a real romance with Pamela (Liv Tyler), which Jacey and the Abbott patriarch, Lloyd (Will Patton), both frown upon.

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kevin c

This has a stellar cast, Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly and Liv Tyler and their performances are all pretty great but for me the story seemed to lack something. It was good and wholly watchable but just a bit underwhelming as a whole. Phoenix and Crudup play ver different brothers from the wrong side of the tracks who both are interested in the Abbots' well to do daughters. I liked this but hoped to love it.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

What people miss is that this movie has less to do with envy of the wealthy than it does of two nerotic family that needed therapy more than anything else. After awhile it became overbearing and I lost interest. It's either a obsession with sex, money and power, or inrequited love. There's not a stable person in sight. There really wasn't any reaolutuin for the neurosis continues to the end of the film. Hard to care about a movie that's bascialll watching one car crash after another with no resolve in sight. It was OK but I wouldn't recommend it.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This moving was boring, corny, dull, unoriginal what else am I missing .... 1.7. Acting wasnt terrible given the script but cmon . This really felt like a cheap lifetime movie

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

12/12/20

Full Review

Audience Member

"Life is not a cafeteria" Good movie set in the late 1950s, early 1960s. A coming of age film that has ping pong, work, academics, class, cocktail parties, love, & loss. There is also forgiveness, love, & redemption. Well worth seeing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/23/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Easily one of the most underrated movies of the 90's. Always thought this was a well-regarded movie, but just looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes and critics / audiences hated it. I guess they just weren't in the mood for it, which is lame, because it's really good. Well acted, beautiful, and told economically. What more can you want?

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

Full Review

panayiota k

A bit slow paced but the characters are interesting.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Pat O'Connor

Director

Joaquin Phoenix

Doug Holt

Billy Crudup

Jacey Holt

Liv Tyler

Pamela Abbott

Will Patton

Lloyd Abbott

Kathy Baker

Helen Holt

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

Apart from the script, it’s the actors who make this a film worth seeing; all of them look and sometimes even act like real people rather than types or icons.

Rated: 3/4

Jun 15, 2022

Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: C+

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Emanuel Levy

Variety

Cast of newcomers is appealing, but this small-town melodrama is so old-fashioned and out-of-touch with contemporary youth that it feels as if it were made the same time that its story is set, in 1957.

Rated: C

Aug 8, 2007

Full Review

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

...an evocative, entertaining drama...

Rated: 2.5/4

Dec 28, 2023

Full Review

Jake Euker

F5 (Wichita, KS)

Rated: 1/5

Mar 18, 2006

Full Review

Philip Martin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Rated: 2/5

Apr 2, 2005

Full Review

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Synopsis

In the 1950s, brothers Jacey (Billy Crudup) and Doug Holt (Joaquin Phoenix), who come from the poorer side of their sleepy Midwestern town, vie for the affections of the wealthy, lovely Abbott sisters. Lady-killer Jacey alternates between Eleanor (Jennifer Connelly) and Alice (Joanna Going), wanting simply to break the hearts of rich young women. But sensitive Doug has a real romance with Pamela (Liv Tyler), which Jacey and the Abbott patriarch, Lloyd (Will Patton), both frown upon.

Director: Pat O'Connor
Executive Producer: Karen Kehela Sherwood, Jack Cummins
Screenwriter: Ken Hixon
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Fox 2000 Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Imagine Entertainment
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 4, 1997, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 25, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $5.9M
Sound Mix: Surround

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