Chilly Scenes of Winter (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Chilly Scenes of Winter (also Head Over Heels) is a 1979 romantic comedy film, written and directed by Joan Micklin Silver.
The film is an adaptation of the 1976 novel Chilly Scenes of Winter by Ann Beattie.
Name change
The first version of the film, with the title Head over Heels, had a happy ending. In 1982, the distributor re-released it with a new melancholy ending (just with the original last scene omitted), and the title was changed to match the book. The film had a more successful run this time.
Plot
Charles Richardson is a civil servant in his early 30s, working in the Department of Development in Salt Lake City, Utah, and he is an impetuous romantic. One day, he meets Laura Conley in the filing department of his office, and it is love at first sight.
Laura is a married woman who has just moved out on her husband Jim, a log-home salesman. She is disillusioned by her own marriage and wants to find herself. Charles gathers his courage and asks her out. Soon, she moves in with him and seems happy, but starts having second thoughts. According to Laura, he loves her too much. "You have this exalted view of me, and I hate it. If you think I'm that great, then there must be something wrong with you."
Laura leaves Charles and goes back to her husband Jim. Sam, recently unemployed as a jacket salesman, moves in with Charles, who tries to grapple with the loss of Laura. Charles's mother, meanwhile, is an eccentric who has suicidal thoughts.
Charles begins to make efforts to win Laura back. Charles finds out from his secretary Betty that Laura has left Jim once again and is living in an apartment with a roommate. Charles confronts Laura, finally asking her to decide if they will have a future together.
Cast
- John Heard as Charles
- Mary Beth Hurt as Laura
- Peter Riegert as Sam
- Kenneth McMillan as Pete
- Gloria Grahame as Clara
- Nora Heflin as Betty
- Jerry Hardin as Patterson
- Tarah Nutter as Susan
- Mark Metcalf as Jim
- Griffin Dunne as Mark
