Never Forever (2007) Online

Watching this movie was a breathtaking experience to me. From the very first scene, it grabbed my attention, and I became more and more involved with the story of this beautiful and desperate woman, Sophie Lee.

The movie touches so many important issues such as interracial marriage, faith and religion, class determined by economic factors, and illegal immigrant. Yet those issues are so well blended without distracting the audience' attention from the main story.

The main story is purely simple. It's a woman's struggle to keep a man she loves happy. But in the end, she realizes that she has to pursue her own happiness.

It's the story of my own life. It's the story of so many women that I know. It's also the story of so many sons and daughters, wives and husbands, and fathers and mothers. That's why this movie touches the very core of my heart - anybody's heart.

The visual elements are very powerful. Extremely shallow focus are used in many scenes, isolating the characters from the background and sometimes from each other. However camera is never in the way of story telling.

The most notable element of the movie is, needless to say, the outstanding performances by Vera Farmiga, Jung-Woo Ha and David McInnis. Especially I was overwhelmed by the powerful screen presence of Vera's delicate feature. She can be funny, sexy and innocent without even trying. She becomes the woman I'd love to be friends with. She becomes the lover I'd cherish and hold in my arms, and the mother I'd look up to. She arouses so many emotions within me that through her I face my own womanhood and independence.

After watching the movie, I thought makers of "Unfaithful" should watch this movie to learn that an affair can have such depth, profundity and purity...

Never Forever is a rare gem in the film industry, an art-house film enjoyable to watch on a Friday night. Though I think English native speakers might have a bit of a problem with the male lead Ha Jung Woo's English speaking ability, otherwise it's perfect. Sophie Lee(Vera Farmiga in a superb performance)is a white girl from a plain American family who marries Andrew(David McInnis),a successful Korean American lawyer from a high class family. The couple have a perfect life except for one thing. Andrew's sperms aren't strong enough for Sophie to have a baby. This one factor leads Andrew to attempt suicide.

Next we see Ji Ha. Ji Ha is an illegal immigrant who is saving money so that he can bring his girlfriend to America, but because he's living illegally, there are many things he can't do like selling his sperms to a clinic for a small amount of money. After being rejected by the clinic, he comes home depressed to find a strange white woman sitting in front of his doorstep with a dangerous proposal. Every time he has sex with her she'll give him 300dollars and if she gets pregnant he gets thirty thousand dollars in cash.

That white woman is Sophie. Seeing as getting pregnant was the only choice to make her husband happy, she buys Ji-Ha's sperms after seeing him by chance at the clinic. What started as a strict business relationship starts turning into passionate love.

I will stop here about the plot because if I write more,it'll probably become a spoiler but the main reason I liked this movie wasn't the plot. It was the superb performances of Vera Farmiga and Ha Jung Woo(a relatively unknown in the international movie industry, having bit parts in acclaimed director Kim Ki Duk's film 'Time'and 'Breath'.)I've only seen Vera Farmiga in 'The Departed' and 'Running Scared',yet the depth she put into Sophie was something I rarely see an actor or actress perform. Not to mention full frontal nudity. Not many actresses like to take their clothes off even if it's necessary and if they do, they ask for tons of money but Vera willingly did it in a three million dollar low-budget film. Ha Jung Woo is, how can I say it, a phenomenon. I knew he was good looking after seeing him in 'The Fox Family'(not many actors look good when they're dressed like a total nitwit.)but didn't know the extent of his acting abilities. His English tongue is not perfect,sure,but how many actors can act so well speaking a language that they're not completely fluent in? I cried my eyes out during one scene where he whispers into Vera's ear "Saranghaeyo"(in English it means "I love you"), the only Korean line he speaks .

Overall, Never Forever is a fantastic film. Go check it out when it opens(if it opens)in a theater near you.(It's also worth knowing that the theme for the movie was composed by Michael Nyman, the man behind the music for The Piano,directed by Jane Campion.)

I really, really admire Vera Farmiga for taking on this project. How can you not? Allow me to explain.

If you can suspend logical disbelief while watching this film, you will be swept away. The movie had a quiet and patient, but very powerful undercurrent.

It deals so nonchalantly with something that is so uncommon in movies nowadays, that I have to make mention of it. An Asian male in honest and open sex scenes with a white female. The real achievement here is that this movie avoids the race issue altogether. The director does not turn it into some kind of elephant in the room. No, it is an elephant of our own Western making, is it not? Was anyone else shocked to see love portrayed this way, where it is truly is shown as universal, not just possible between chosen ethnic pairings? The movie did not treat it like a big deal at all. The white girl - Asian guy couples I've met in real life don't treat it like a big deal either. I believe this ethnic pairing - currently, perhaps the only interracial pairing that actually occurs less frequently in Western movies than it does in real life - will become more commonplace as the Asian cinema industry matures, as the West becomes ever-increasingly comfortable with the East, as both sides evolve towards the human average, and there are more Asian actors from which to choose.

Now that aside, let's get back to the film itself, because it is more than capable of standing proudly on its own feet without its groundbreaking nonchalant attitude towards race.

Tremendous acting, especially from Ms. Farmiga and Jung-woo Ha, the "homewrecker." The amount of emotion that these two are able to convey in nonverbal moments is truly stunning. You will be moved.

The set designs and cinematography, in addition to the beautiful actors themselves, are a visual feast - a real aesthetic treat.

The sex scenes were very tasteful and well-done. As the relationship develops, so clearly does the depth and honesty of their physical relations, to the point where Farmiga's character is able to climax by simply daydreaming about her lover.

You may know the entire plot line to this movie already, and you will still have an A+ experience watching how it was executed.

I loved this film. It defied almost all my expectations, and will probably watch it several times over the course of my life. I would recommend that anyone who decides to watch this film, too, find within themselves a fraction of Vera Farmiga's open-mindedness, boldness, and vision when she took on this project.

A standing ovation for her.

NEVER FOREVER is a well-developed, well-written and well-directed film by Gina Kim, and with an actress with the stature of Vera Farmiga in the difficult lead role, it is frustrating to see that this fine film didn't last on theater screens. But as with many of the other treasurable small independent films, this one feels even better in the privacy of the home - the small screen somehow allows the powerful emotions of the story to be more focused.

Sophie (Vera Farmiga) is the beautiful Caucasian wife of wealthy and respected Korean Andrew (David Lee McInnis) and the couple seem to have it all - looks, a close-knit family, beautiful home, etc. - but there is an underlying tension: Sophie and Andrew have been unable to conceive and bear a child, a fact that troubles Andrew's very orthodox Christian family and profoundly affects Andrew's sense of worth. Though the couple has sought professional assistance, their marriage remains barren. Andrew's fragile stance results in a suicide attempt and in trying to correct the cause of this tragedy, Sophie decides she will attempt to conceive from a donor. Because both members of a couple must consent to artificial insemination, Sophie's plan is thwarted except for one aspect: visiting the clinic she has selected is a young Korean man named Jihah (Jung-woo Ha) who is attempting to be a sperm donor but is rejected because he is an illegal immigrant. Overhearing this exchange, Sophie follows Jihah and finally discovers where he lives. She approaches him with a business deal - she will pay him $300. for each session and when she becomes pregnant she will pay him $30,000. Jihah is shy at first, but he is working in a meat packing plant and dry cleaners trying to save enough money to bring his girlfriend from Korea to the USA. Desperate for money Jihah consents and Sophie begins her visits to him when her cycle is conducive to conception. The relationship is one of quick polite encounters, careful to avoid interpersonal factors that might make either partner uncomfortable. But a sense of interdependence evolves, and when Sophie achieves pregnancy, the couple decides to part ways.

Sophie's pregnancy at first overjoys Andrew and his family and the couple's future looks bright. But both Sophie and Jihah are unable to dismiss the intimacy of the relationship they have developed, Andrew discovers Sophie's adventure, and the marriage falls apart while Jihah informs his girlfriend in Korea that he will never be able to bring her to America. At this vulnerable point the film simply ends - some years later Sophie is at the beach with her son and is again very pregnant and the viewer is left to decide the resolution.

Vera Farmiga is even more beautiful in this role than her many other roles and never for a moment loses out empathy and understanding of the decisions she makes. Both of the men are strong as are the various actors who flesh out the film. This is a tough topic to relate, but writer/director Gina Kim allows the acts of love to be the memorable echo the film leaves behind. Grady Harp

BE WARNED, the plot is revealed ahead, partially.

It's a poetic look at a woman's desperate struggle to have a child. In order to please her successful Asian American husband, this blonde-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian woman takes whatever means necessary in order to conceive a child, even if it means sleeping with another man. It's a beautiful looking film that breaks traditional conventions. The movie gives a rare and unique look at what happens in a relationship between an Asian man and a white woman. The camera seamlessly moves back and forth following the characters' faces so that it feels like we're worrying along with them. The story dares to bring sexuality back to Asian men and deserves to be seen.

Vera Farmiga is one of those rare actors that is emotionally present in roles that require vulnerability and honesty. I remember seeing her first in that short-lived TV series "Roar." She alone among all the actors in the cast that included a young Heath Ledger seemed to project real emotions in a series that was flirting close to "Xena" territory.

So Director Gina Kim could not have found a better actor to play the role of Sophie, a woman who must make difficult choices involving two men and their respective worlds. Much will be made in Asian American circles about the intimate scenes Farmiga has with men of Asian descent. Beyond the novelty of such pairings in film, these scenes underscore one of the peculiar aspects of the movie: while the men in these scenes go through the (ahem) motions, Farmiga actually acts.

That disparity is apparent in almost every scene Farmiga has with the Asian actors. While the male leads, Jung-woo Ha and David McInnis, are dutiful journeymen in their roles, they don't reach the honesty that Farmiga is able to bare. Against Farmiga's acting, Ha's and McInnis's performances come across almost as recitation.

I can see Ha's delivery fitting seamlessly in a cutesy Korean miniseries. Someone should tell male actors not to grip their hair with both hands when the scene calls for inner turmoil. It comes off as pantomime. That "someone" should have been the director. While plot and composition worked well, I found Kim's direction of the acting lacking. Perhaps she was working within the limitations of the acting abilities of the male leads. In that particular case, she should have recast those roles.

The lapses in the direction of the actors are apparent when lines are spoken by the male leads. There is an odd stiffness to the delivery that sounds "off" to native-speakers and those of us who immigrated to the States at a young age. Something in the cadence and intonation that distinguishes someone reading Shakespeare and someone speaking as Hamlet. Ha may have had an English tutor in Korea that spent too much time in-country, because he actually does a fine job with lines he speaks in Korean. I marvel at actors who can truly act in two different languages. Sidow and Streep easily come to mind.

Kim isn't a native speaker and so she will have to develop a sensitivity to the sound of spoken English as other non-native directors have had to do. That "ear" is what she will have to develop if she is going to be casting less-gifted or less-experienced talent. Ang Lee had the same problem in his early English language movies and those actors fresh out of Juilliard. It's the difference between Jean-Pierre Jeunet directing Dominique Pinon in French and Jeunet and Pinon, respectively, in English. "Alien: Resurrection" was a just an action movie and the weird delivery by Pinon and some of the supporting cast was noticeable. (Sigourney Weaver made out on her acting chops alone.)

Thankfully, this movie is centered around Sophie and so Farmiga binds the narrative with her honest performance. The role of Sophie really could have been played by an Asian actor and the story could have been a Korean-language movie about a Korean American woman. Perhaps Kim wanted to give emphasis to Sophie's isolation and to that central dilemma of the story.

There are certain elements of Korean and Korean American culture that are played to near-caricature: the cold, oppressive mother-in-law and the zealous pastor, for instance. So, I must wonder if the story came from Kim's own deliberation about her relationships and choices she has had to make as a Korean and a Korean American.

For Farmiga, it is another remarkable performance to add to her growing body of work.

I wantcha to know I have limited my mini-reviews to Netflix but I'm making an exception for this because I want non-Netflix people to see it too. Never Forever is a conundrum. On the one hand, really melodramatic, improbable and predictable at the same time. And yet it manifests --I would even say embodies-- a sort of filmic courage that is rare indeed.The sheer loonyness of it all somehow seems to contribute to its real strength. Perhaps it is art defying rationality. Parse it, and it more or less falls apart. But if you let it hit you, you're likely to find it memorable. The confident tone suggests to me that director Gina Kim is on the road to formidable.

Never Forever was a great movie. I was not sure what to expect since I do not recall the film ever being promoted even as an Indie; and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this film. I really love Vera Farmiga's acting and I truly enjoyed the diversity of the actors. I have started to really appreciate more diversity in the sex appeal Asian actors in general. This is the second film I have seen in the last month with Korean and other Asian actors and I find the quality of their acting superb and I find the actors very sexy, attractive and appealing. I am somewhat shock that more people have not seen this movie or appreciated what this movie bring to the table. Sophie was desperate to help her husband fight his "demons" and attempted to give him something to hold on to. This movie is a must watch. I truly loved this film!

I thought Never Forever despite it's kooky title was pretty effective in it's main drive of the story - Romance. To call it predictable would be putting it mildly. Early on, the story corners itself into a very well-trodden seen before aspect. But that doesn't mean it's dull. I quite enjoyed especially Verma Farmiga and Jung-Woo Ha in their romance - one more out of loneliness. They both looked lost, but came together well. The conflict and circumstances involved unfortunately feels forced and contrived - luckily the actors generally lift up the material. I especially enjoyed the nuances of the sexuality of the affair - starting as a business but becoming something more primal when emotions begin to overcome rationality. The director does a good job of implicating this and giving us plenty of evidence to convince us. We can see, understand, and feel their raw emotions. Pretty good entertainment for the romance and affair itself.

"Never Forever" is a deeply flawed movie replete with missed opportunities that whiz right past like rush hour buses in front of a motionless commuter. It is also well worth seeing, for a riveting performance by Vera Farmiga, a suggestive plot, and its treatment of unusual topics.

Sophie (Vera Farmiga), a beautiful, blonde, trophy wife, is determined to give Andrew (David McGinnis) her "master-of-the-universe," very wealthy and successful husband, the child he cannot father himself. He is infertile. Her husband is Korean, so she chases down Jihah, (Jung-Woo Ha) an illegal Korean immigrant, and offers him three hundred dollars for every time he has sex with her, and thirty thousand dollars once she gets pregnant. The two perform the act with complete alienation, but eventually develop feelings for each other.

The plot, is, of course, implausible. It reaches its height of silliness when Sophie tells Jihah she will pay him the bonus of $30,000 if she gets pregnant. Why the bonus? Would he really not have sex with this beautiful woman for three hundred dollars if he did not get the bonus? Are there other beautiful women out there offering bonuses of $25,000, and does Sophie need to remain competitive? Further, Sophie reveals no knowledge that a woman is fertile for a short window every month. Is she having sex with Jihah outside of that window of opportunity? Apparently so, because no seasons pass; all the action seems to take place during the same month.

Finally, why not just go to a sperm bank, or use a turkey baster? Indeed, why does Sophie remove every stitch of clothing? You really don't need to remove everything you've got on in order to perform the act necessary for pregnancy. The film's marketers show a healthy respect for the market appeal of nude Vera Farmiga.

Most of the action takes place in Sophie and Andrew's rich, cold, white, empty house and Jihah's squalid, lurid, red-and-green walled tenement. The director did not create enough atmosphere with these two sets. I never get a sense of Jihah's room. In one scene, it rains. That scene should have been milked for all it was worth: two strangers, separated by race and class, united for a moment, in a tiny apartment, as rain falls outside. Sigh.

Also, so much more could have been done with the sex scenes, which are rather flat and unimaginative. Sophie and Jihah connect, and transcend barriers of race and class, through this one act. I wish that they had been depicted with more eloquence.

In spite of the criticisms, this movie is well worth seeing. It isn't prurient. It's really a fairy tale about connection in spite of distance. Like a fairy tale, the film suggests and evokes more than it depicts, and the viewer's imagination is left to fill in the blanks.

"Never Forever" is also worth seeing because it is unusual. This is the only American film with a Korean-born Korean lead with a thick Korean accent that many viewers may ever see. Finally, the film is worth seeing for Vera Farmiga's riveting performance. She conveys volumes with a glance. Sophie is not very bright, and has limited strength. She sits around her gilded cage all day, while her maid cleans her house and her husband works. She's, simply, not very likable, but Farmiga makes Sophie very watchable.

Jung-Woo Ha as Jihah is also fascinating. He's not particularly good looking. He makes for a convincing illegal immigrant. He is short, slight, and wears stained t-shirts. As the film draws closer to him and spends more time with him, though, the viewer can see what is special about him, and comes to care about him – this process parallels the experience of falling in love. At first the other may come across as not that special, but as two people get closer together, they see what is special about the other.

While the romance genre is something I'm new to, I'd have to say this was one of the best ones I've seen (please remember, I've only watched about 5 romance movies in my 32 years of life).

A love that develops between people of two different races and cultures is something that I find very fascinating. It proves that we all want the same thing, no matter what creed, culture, race, nation, religion, whatever we come from.

That being said, Vera Farmiga puts on her best "desperate woman" role (I believe she won the Emmy for Bates Motel for playing a character I'd describe as such). Desperate to please her Korean-American husband and his family, she goes to a sperm clinic alone and witnesses a Korean man with an expired visa getting rejected as a donor.

Intrigued by the possibility of covertly and unmaliciously fooling her husband by having sex with a Korean man simply for the sake of having a baby she can at least pretend belongs to her and her husband, she follows the rejected sperm donor and eventually gives him a business proposal.

What follows is story of inner conflict, the desire (and simultaneous torment) to live up to societal and cultural expectations (and how they can get in the way of true love), as well as how other things out of our control can get in the way of being with the one we want.

While the epilogue left me a little confused, I was for the most part enraptured by the film. I think it'd be appealing to anyone having trouble finding true happiness and love.

Also, did Vera break the 4th wall at the end?

(Spoilers !!) This is an annoying film.. as it insults the intelligence of its' audience for the sake of a storyline. As no intelligent individual who is committed to, and in love with their partner would enter into such a secretive, illicit, sexual affair in order to produce a child. They simply would do what tens of thousands of other couples do, and sign on to an in-vitro program. And from there this irrational story goes even further down the rabbit hole, when they abandon their spouse because the infidelity (and a previously undisclosed abortion) is uncovered, and the spouse (not surprisingly) refuses to enter into such a situation. The whole mess ends with her smiling, happily frolicking somewhere on a beach (maybe outside the country?) with her deported immigrant lover's kid.. and she is once again pregnant with another of his children. The ex left well behind, for no reason other than he shoots blanks..and she wanted a baby not from a tube, but the hot & steamy fashion. Usually like Farmiga a lot.. she was not bad here, but should have taken a pass on this contrived B- time waster.

A woman in love with her husband (he's suicidal) decides to have a baby to save his life. She's been to a fertility clinic - as has the lover she takes - so both know how artificial insemination works; but, instead of using the method thousands of people use every year around the world (the $5 turkey baster), they engage in coitus. We also are to believe that although the immigrant is in love with his fiancée, he doesn't suggest the obvious alternative to intercourse. Further, even though this is a business arrangement, the first time she's with her sperm donor, she takes off all her clothes, as if it's a seduction. Plus, her husband doesn't notice when $30,000 goes missing from their bank accounts. Does all this seem to demand more willing suspension of disbelief than even most Hollywood fare? Far fetched on all counts.

A woman, Sophie, makes a $$pact with an illegal alien man to try and get herself pregnant, she's married to an upper-middle class church-going professional who can't seem to get it done. Perfunctory sex for hire turns to something quite a bit more, not right away though (we're in on the action) and the three points of the human triangle come closer together. A slight jab is thrown at the Christianity as practiced by American Koreans, maybe that perfect house in the suburbs isn't all it seems. A good tale with a fine suspense on how it's all going to play out, and the ending leaves something for the viewer to ponder, about Sophie's choice.

Vera Farmiga plays an affluent woman whose life and marriage is unraveling. She and her Korean husband have been trying without success to get pregnant. Her suicidal husband has given up on the idea, but it's become an obsession with her, the one thing that will fix everything that's broken. She makes a proposition to a young Korean immigrant -- she will pay him $300 in cash every time they have sex, with an additional $30,000 in cash if she conceives.

I had my doubts before watching this film that the screenplay would be able to make this premise plausible, but it does. It sets things up in such a way that they play out honestly, without feeling overly manipulated by the hands of a screenwriter or director. It helps tremendously that Farmiga gives such a good performance -- you have to really understand her character if the movie is going to make any sense, and we do, thanks to Farmiga's commitment to the role.

Though ambiguous, the ending suggests a happy ending that DID feel implausible to me. But the rest of the movie is such a downer that I actually didn't mind it, because I just wanted something positive to happen to this poor woman.

Grade: B+

Long story short: Sophie and her husband Andrew can't have children so Sophie, on her own and without saying anything to her husband, decides to start banging Jihah, a Korean man who looks somewhat similar to her husband.

It's an interesting concept, and the film was rolling along -- right up to the point that Sophie announces she's pregnant. That's when things began to head south. And I REALLY started hating this film the minute pregnant Sophie goes back to have sex with her surrogate turkey baster. I was actually yelling at the screen: "Don't do it, Sophie. Don't do it". (Needless to say, she didn't listen, and went ahead and did it.)

That in and of itself might not have been so bad, if she at least had had the integrity to be honest with her husband. (You know...the person she was SUPPOSEDLY doing all this for in the first place.) But no...she lied. And cheated. And continued to lie and cheat throughout the rest of the film -- all the while telling her surrogate turkey baster how much she loved her husband. She even goes so far as to demand from her surrogate turkey baster that he tell her that: "This baby is his (her husband's). Please tell me this baby is his."

It's an interesting film. The acting was excellent, especially Vera Farmiga as Sophie. But the message is all wrong. Sophie is not any sort of a victim or a hero; she's just a plain old fashioned run of the mill ho. So when it comes to the end, which focuses exclusively on whether or not Sophie is now happy, the only emotional response I felt at that point was disdain.

I set out to enjoy this movie, hoping for something that would take the best elements of movies such as Unfaithful and The Rabbit Hole and mix them with some independent flair and lesser known, but capable actors.

The problem with this film is that there is one actor who is convincing... Farmiga. What's she manages to convince a pragmatic viewer of is another matter for later in this review. The two male main characters do workmanlike, unremarkable jobs of portraying relatively stereotyped characters, that of the depressed, middle aged man who can't have everything he wanted in life and a naive 20 year old kid who falls in 'love' because he receives the one thing guaranteed to cause a 20 year old to throw caution and logic to the wind. Never mind that it's delivered with more than a nod to the old saw "Love like you're being paid."

Moving on to Farmiga, I think it's helpful to examine the absurdity of the plot. She's obviously almost as clinically depressed as her husband. Any of these ring a bell:

"feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and/or helplessness" "persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" feelings"

I hope so, because those, and five other clinical symptoms are displayed in endless scenes of hand wringing, melodramatic expressions of pain, listlessly staring at walls while in a near fetal position, conversing as if it takes EVERY... LAST... BIT... of energy... Is this really good acting?

The plot is also beyond silly. She does all this for her husband who she 'loves'. She achieves what she has stated is her only desire and he responds with warmth and spark that had been utterly lacking before. Of course, her response to this is to dream of dirty sex in a filthy tenement with a kid who's actual dialogue has mainly consisted of publicly implying, quite crudely, that she's a confused tramp who needs 'what he has', and isn't referring to the procreation aspects of their transactional trysts.

If her mooning about seems like good acting, then I guess the above weirdness seems like a love story destined to break through barriers and walls that most could not. I was not terribly moved by this movie, although it was interesting watching it all play out. Farmiga is better when her talents are focused on helping a better movie play out logically.

I am Korean working as a writer/director in America. The director studied in the same film school but I never met her. That was the only interest in this film.

I always didn't liked Vera Farmiga. I thought that her acting is awful since she feels so much about her look when she is acting. I never saw her getting into her character truly.

But in this film she was pretty good. At the beginning,she was not so good as usual. But as time goes by, I felt that she is feeling what her character needs and wants.

I still don't think that it's her hidden ability that made this possible but rather her effort working with the director.

Above all, I was very impressed about the film. There are a lot of layers in the story, each characters' emotion and of course the light and shadow in the mis-en-scene.

It's a wonderful art movie.

This heartbreaking drama stars Vera Farmiga as Sophie Lee, a woman utterly devoted to her upper-crust Korean Catholic husband Andrew(David McInnis)that finds herself in a depressive situation; when she finds she's unable to get pregnant. This predicament seems to cause dishonor toward her husband and Sophie feels her marriage is in grave danger. She decides to entertain an affair with a Korean immigrant(Jung-woo Ha). She is willing to pay the young man for his services; with even a bigger payday upon her pregnancy. This fateful decision soon threatens to bring about emotional and mental anxiety nearing total despair.

The story line is touching, but I was not so happy with Farmiga's hairstyle and wardrobe. Why make such a beautiful woman appear so bland? Other players include: Marceline Hugot, Kari Swenson Riley, Joseph Y. Kim and Shirley Roeca.