Product Details

• Actors: Steven Dorff, Susan Sarandon, Jay O. Sanders
• Directors: James Lapine
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: August 24, 1999
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305504032
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,854 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Earthly Possessions" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Susan Sarandon is Charlotte Emory, a sexually frustrated unhappy homemaker who longs for her husband to stop taking her for granted. Stephen Dorff is Jake Simms, a bank robber with a vicious temper and the obligatory heart of gold. When Jake attempts a bank robbery, Charlotte becomes his hostage. Together, they go on the lam.

Thelma and Louise this isn't. This original HBO film, Earthly Possessions, based on the Anne Tyler novel, is a sentimental road movie that requires more than a little suspension of disbelief (that they're able to escape in the first place is a miracle). Yet Sarandon, even in the most disappointing of roles, is a phenomenal actress who will make us believe just about anything. And so she does here; even with the trademark two-dimensionality of Tyler's characters, Charlotte Emory is a woman you can't help but care about. Dorff, with his rough-and-tumble good looks, is fairly believable as the irresponsible hooligan, and despite the unlikelihood of a relationship developing between these two, you are sucked into the romance right with them. Throw in a couple of car chases and a pregnant girlfriend, and you've got an entertaining, lighthearted film. While the ending is a little disappointing, fans of Tyler's novels and her other books on film (Saint Maybe and Breathing Lessons) will surely be swept away. --Jenny Brown

Product Description

A bored wife, who is planning on leaving her minister husband, is taken hostage in a bank robbery by a young man. She sees the thrill in being involved in the chase and helps the robber save his pregnant girlfriend from a home for unwed mothers.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All around good movie, August 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Earthly Possessions [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I really enjoyed this movie. Sarandon and Dorff were excellent together. I found this movie had a little bit of everything in it, comedy,drama and romance. I felt the two stars played off each other very well. Sarandon is always good and Stephen Dorff....he's a great actor, I wish he was in more movies. Every movie I've seen him in he was great, he seems to play every part well. His performance in "Blade" was fantastic as was his performance in this film. He's a very versitile actor. I enjoy watching movies where the actors don't seem to be reading from a script, and this was one of those movies. I think this is a movie that will appeal to a wide age range. My only fault with this movie was the ending(no I won't tell), I just wish it had ended differently. I work in a video store and plan to recommend this to my customers as well as to all of you. I feel this movie is worth seeing.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than the book!, March 4, 2001

By 

Riven "ladyriven" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earthly Possessions (DVD)

There's something to really be loved about this film. Initially I had plans on watching it because it stars Stephen Dorff, who is one of my all-time favorite actors, but since I didn't have HBO, I had a friend of mine record it for me (later I got the DVD) and I even decided to go pick up the book before I watched the movie. To my surprise, I enjoyed the movie a LOT more than the book. Though the book has it's good points, it alternates between the present and the past, and I tended to get a bit bored with the past part. Not only that, but the film has added romance, which gives it an extra special flair. I found myself much more satisfied with the film, in the end. It's fun, it's funny, and it's *surprisingly* very good.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Ann Tyler film, April 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Earthly Possessions (DVD)

Although Susan Sarandon is older than the character of Charlotte was originally written to be, her charismatic and intelligent acting and intense chemistry with Stephen Dorff, in a role he could have been born to play, make this Tyler filmization work beautifully. The style of this escapist-roadtrip might be light-hearted (despite it revolving around a bankrobber kidnapping an innocent bystander), peppered with great supporting characters, but the emotions and complicated bonds that arise are wonderfully deep and inspiring. This is really about people who start out wrong and end up right, each discovering his/her own strengths and place in life. I especially like how un-ageist the story is... none of the three main characters, ranging decades apart in age, seem to have any emotional bias about each other when you might think they would... there is a sudden equality established between middle-aged desperate housewife, young confused troublemaker, and pregnant not-so-ditzy teenager that casts a warm glow over all the tangled proceedings that ensue from their paths crossing fatefully. The scenarios are typically Tyler-quirky so you will probably not recognize these characters as being just like your next door neighbor... but it is great fun to go on the ride with them. Fine acting from the lead stars down to the last cameo-character actor! And, ultimately, a moving romance.