Natalie Babbitt's best-selling and award-winning 1975 children's book Tuck Everlasting is required reading for many school children. It chronicles the adventures of a rich and unhappy young girl in the mysterious woods near her home. The screenplay by Jeffrey Lieber and James V. Hart draws out the lyrical qualities of the story and its exploration of time, death, eternity, and what it means to live a full and rich life. Director Jay Russell, who previously was at the helm of the family film My Dog Skip, has brought together a fine cast and remained true to messages of the children's classic. The beautiful setting of the fictional town of Treegap is Berlin, Maryland, and the adjacent Susquehanna State Park.
In 1914, fifteen-year-old Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel) is growing up under the vigilant eyes of her dominating and pristine mother (Amy Irving). She yearns to break free of her cosseted and dull life. Her father (Victor Garber), a wealthy man who owns a lot of property around their home, agrees that Winnie should be sent away to a private school where her "unbridled nature" will be tamed and she will learn the refinements of a proper young lady.
Meanwhile, in town, Mae Tuck (Sissy Spacek) meets her two sons who have just returned from ten years in France. Jesse (Jonathan Jackson) is a vibrant seventeen-year-old filled with a love of life. His older brother Miles (Scott Bairstow) is still slouched over, bearing in his body the loss of his beloved wife and two children.
Unbeknown to any of these individuals, fate has decided to bring them together in a union that will change and challenge them all in ways they never could have expected. In the woods where the Tuck family lives, the boys tell their father, Angus (William Hurt) they are being tracked by a man in a yellow suit (Ben Kingsley). The same fellow shows up at the Foster residence one evening, telling them he's looking for a family called Tuck.
The next day Winnie learns the terrible news about the private school. She flees into the woods where she happens upon Jesse drinking water from a bubbling spring under a gigantic and very ancient oak tree. When Miles sees her there, he takes her back to the Tuck cabin and suddenly this teenager finds herself in an alternate world where she begins to lose track of time. She and Jesse fall in love romping together through the woods, climbing to a high lookout, and bathing in a pool under a waterfall. But soon the man with the yellow suit finds the Tucks and convinces Winnie's father that they have kidnapped her. In exchange for information on his daughter's whereabouts, Mr. Foster gives the stranger the deed to the woods and its secret treasure.
Tuck Everlasting is a family film that contains some hefty thematic material. Alexis Bledel carries the story on her shoulders and is very convincing as the teenager who is unprepared for the mysteries she encounters in the forest with the Tuck family. As an adolescent, she hasn't thought much about death or what characterizes a full and abundant life. Her experiences with the Tucks are of a spiritual nature, opening her eyes to the impermanence of human existence, the meaning of love, and the nature of time. From Jesse, Winnie learns to live in the present moment. From Angus, she discovers the meaningfulness of change and growth. These two learnings are enough to launch her into a long and fulfilling life.
