A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE

A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE

If you’ve ever read Silas Marner, you already are familiar with the plot of A Simple Twist of Fate, because Steve Martin, who wrote, produced, and starred in the film based it on the Nineteenth Century novel by George Eliot.  According to the plot summary found at Sparknotes.com, the tale is about a weaver named Silas Marner who moves to a new community after he is falsely accused of theft by members of his religious sect.  The injustice imbitters Silas and he keeps to himself, causing his new neighbors, who are suspicious of outsiders anyway, to both distrust and dislike him.  His only companion is the money he earns, and when that is stolen, Silas is devastated.  Then one night a two-year-old girl wanders into his cabin.   Thinking she is God’s way of making up for his lost money, Silas adopts her, names her Eppie after his mother, and comes to love her more than he ever loved his gold.  The two are happy until a crisis arises.


Unbeknownst to Silas, the child is the daughter of Godfrey Cass, son of wealthy Squire Cass, who is secretly married to a heroin addict named Molly.  Molly’s existence has made Godfrey susceptible to blackmail by his younger no-count brother Dunsey so when she dies of an overdose and Dunsey vanishes, Godfrey sees his chance to be freed from all his problems.  He decides not to claim the child, and marries Nancy Lammeter, a virtuous woman with whom he has fallen in love.  The marriage proves to be unhappy, however, because Nancy is unable to give Godfrey a child.  When Dunsy’s skeleton is discovered with Silas’ gold, Godfrey finally confesses to Nancy that Eppie is his daughter.  Rather than being mad at her husband, she insists that he reclaim his child.


In A Simple Twist of Fate, the story has not been changed so much as it has been modernized.  Rather than being a weaver who is accused of theft, the movie’s main character, Michael McCann (Steve Martin), is a teacher who abandons his pregnant wife when he learns that she is carrying his best friend’s child.  He packs up his things, including a cradle that he had made for the baby, and moves to a rural town where he dwells alone, earning his living as a furniture builder.  His work is exceptional, and he has no difficulty finding customers, including John Newland (Gabriel Byrne), a wealthy man who is running for public office.  Each time Michael gets paid, he goes to the local Antique Store owned by April Simon (Catherine O’Hara), the closest person he has to a friend, and buys gold coins which he keeps at home because he doesn’t trust banks.  At night, he closes his blinds, pours himself three shots of liquor, takes the coins from the false bottom of a desk drawer, and runs them through his hands, touching them like he would caress a lover.  Michael’s self-imposed isolation keeps him an outsider in the close-knit community, and he is the subject of much negative gossip.  One of the people’s favorite topics is the amount of gold Michael has hidden in his house.  


Like Godfrey in Silas Marner, John Newland has a secret child with a drug addict, Amelia (Marsha Swanson), and a troublesome brother, Tanny (Stephen Baldwin).  Tanny blackmails John by threatening to expose his brother’s unsavory past while, at the same time, delivering the baby’s child support to Amelia and supplying her with heroin.  When Tanny learns about Michael’s unguarded wealth, he sees a new avenue for acquiring free money and decides to steal it.  He goes to a bar to drink with his girlfriend and when she is completely inebriated, he convinces her to accompany him to Michael’s cabin.  On the way there, he smashes the car into a tree and the girl is killed.  Afraid of being arrested, he takes off, stumbles upon Michael’s property, and breaks in.  Michael is passed out making it easy for Tanny to search for the gold.  He sees a slip of paper sticking out of the bottom of the desk drawer, breaks it open, and finds the coins. He grabs them and runs away.  When Michael awakens hours later and discovers that his gold is gone, he is inconsolable.  


When Tanny fails to come back, Amelia runs out of money and is unable to pay bills and purchase drugs.  High on the last of her heroin, she reads an article in the paper announcing a campaign funding party for John and decides to take their one-year-old daughter (Victoria and Elizabeth Evans) there.  On the way, her car runs out of gas, so she picks up the baby and begins walking.  The night is snowy and bitterly cold, and Amelia soon tires.  She sits down near an isolated cabin to rest and passes out, letting the child go.  Inside the cabin, Michael’s stove is burning low, so he goes outside to get more wood, leaving the door open behind him.  When he comes back in, Amelia’s golden-haired daughter is sitting on the floor watching him.  Michael runs outside and finds Amelia frozen to death.

He grabs the baby and rushes to the party, knowing that the doctor probably will be there.  When he reports that the child’s mother is lying dead in the snow, the doctor (Danny Nelson), John, John’s girlfriend Nancy (Laura Linney), and the shopkeeper April follow Michael home.  The doctor pronounces Amelia dead from a heroin overdose and concludes that the little girl is undoubtedly damaged goods.  John, who knows exactly who Amelia is, says he doesn’t recognize her and fails to claim his child.  Since no one else offers, April takes the baby home with her and Michael gives her the crib he made years before.  


No one in town seems to want the little girl, so Michael says he’ll take her because he believes she came to replace his money.  Even though he owns no property to speak of, his offer is accepted, and the social worker lets him have the child whom he names Mathilda.  Mathilda proves to be the catalyst that changes Michael’s life.  He begins to socialize with April, who helps him with child-rearing, and her son, Lawrence (Chase Conner-age 5; Adam Crosby-age 8; Kellen Crosby-age 11), who becomes Mathilda’s playmate.  Michael comes to love Mathilda very deeply, and as she grows Mathilda begins to realize how lonely her father must be; she symbolically encourages him to regain his trust in humanity by scraping off the paint he used to cover the cabin windows, making the interior of the house light and bright.  The changes in Michael in-turn affect the community’s opinion of him, and his neighbors come to like and respect him.   One day when Michael is standing at the spot where Amelia died, he finds her charm bracelet.  He picks it up and puts it aside to give to Mathilda when the time is right.


Years pass and Mathilda (Alyssa Austin age 5- Alana Austin age 10) grows into an intelligent pretty child who has a lot of friends.  From time to time when he is out horseback riding, John watches her from a distance.  One day he decides to speak to her even though he knows her existence could ruin his relationship with Nancy, who is now his wife, and destroy his political ambitions. In the course of his short conversation with the child, he notes how interested she is in his horse and remembers it.  During the years that Michael has been raising John’s daughter, John has become an influential man with powerful allies.  Therefore, when he and his cronies want to empty the local quarry and use the water to form a lake for a housing development, he has little difficulty getting the city council to accept the proposal.  His backers want the project because it will make them a fortune.  John, however, wants to build a house there in hopes of making his wife, who is unhappy because she has not been able to give him children, smile again.


One day ten-year-old Mathilda (Alana Austin) accompanies her father to the Newland home to deliver a piece of furniture.  Nancy is drawn to Mathilda and Mathilda is drawn to the Newland’s luxurious lifestyle.  Noting his wife’s interest in the girl, John lets Mathilda ride one of his horses and asks Michael if she can take riding lessons. Unaware of the danger these people pose to the security of his family, Michael readily agrees.  Whenever Mathilda is at the Newland home, Nancy gives her a lot of attention by fixing her hair and spending time with her.  Seeing his wife happy for the first time in years, John decides that he made a mistake when he gave up his daughter and tells Nancy who Mathilda really is.  At first, she is angered by his deception, but after thinking it over, she realizes that Mathilda could be the child she has always wanted and insists that her husband reclaim his daughter. 


John develops a strategy to accomplish this.  He begins by giving Mathilda a horse that she can ride whenever she wants.  Next, he strives to drive a wedge between the girl and her adoptive father by swearing her to secrecy about the gift, warning her that Michael will make her give it back if he finds out.   Mathilda badly wants the horse and agrees.  Even though he doesn’t know anything of John’s subterfuge, Michael starts to notice how much time Mathilda is spending at the Newland house and tells her to quit going over so often.  Not wanting to give up the perks she’s been enjoying, Mathilda refuses.  Unbeknownst to either of them, John has taken the final step in his campaign to regain his child by filing suit for her custody.  


When he gets served with the notice, Michael goes to John’s house to have it out with him; while the two men are arguing, Mathilda rides up on her bike and learns that John is her real father.  He offers to let her live at his house, but to his surprise, instead of accepting the invitation, Mathilda rides away upset and confused.  She goes home and when Michael comes in, she asks him about her mother and requests to be shown Amelia’s grave.  He explains that he never asked about her mother’s background because he was afraid someone in her family would show up and take Mathilda away.  He assures Mathilda that her mother loved her and gives her Amelia’s bracelet.  His honesty helps Mathilda recognize that her real parents are the woman who bore her and the man who sacrificed everything to raise her.  Her feelings toward her birth father, on the other hand, remain ambivalent. 


At the custody hearing, John’s attorney is successful in getting Michael’s character witnesses to admit he cannot provide Mathilda with advantages like a superior education and sumptuous lifestyle that the Newlands can offer her.  Mathilda’s feelings toward John remain uncertain until she hears his attorneys refer to her mother as an embarrassment and drug addict, and assassinate Michael’s character by describing him as poor, reclusive, unfriendly, miserly, angry, and lonely.  Mathilda begins to see that the Newlands are not nice people and that she is better off with the only parent she has ever known.    The judge wants to leave her with Michael, but he owes John favors.   He is just about to announce his decision when it is learned that a skeleton surrounded by gold coins has been found at the bottom of the emptied quarry.  

There is little question that the remains are Tanny’s and the coins are Michael’s.  What is uncertain is the impact the discovery might have on Mathilda’s future.  Will Michael be able to prove that the gold is his, and, even if he can, will it convince the judge to forego his own interests by letting Mathilda remain with Michael now that he can provide the same things for her the Newlands can?  To find out, you need to see the movie because I’m not going to tell you.  Instead, I will just add that the film operates on many levels. There is the obvious question of what constitutes family.  Is a parent the person who conceives you or the one who raises you?  There is also the issue of wealth.  Is the better parent the one that can buy the most, or the one who can offer things that are intangible?  Another consideration is the importance of social status.  Is a person’s social standing more or less important than his behavior?  Finally, it opens questions regarding justice.  Can fairness prevail if those in power are allowed to accept favors that could compromise their decisions?  I’m not offering answers to any of these questions.  Just proffering them as concepts to consider.


I’ll close this by relating my favorite scene from the movie.  Three-year-old Mathilda (Alaina and Callie Mobley) slips away while her father is working and wanders out to the quarry.  She is right at the edge when a rainbow striped hot air balloon piloted by Michael appears in front of her; smiling he snatches her up and takes her sailing across the cerulean sky.  There are many other enjoyable scenes in this film.  It’s up to you to choose the ones you like best.  I’ll be back in two weeks to discuss the movie Missing.  Until then, enjoy some great flicks.