'Inventing the Abbotts' sends its young stars back in time

April 2, 1997
Web posted at: 5:10 a.m. EST

From correspondent Bill Tush

(CNN) -- Take five twentysomething actors of the '90s and put them in a story set in the '50s. That's what the makers of the new movie "Inventing the Abbotts" did.

For Liv Tyler, who plays Pam, one of the three Abbott sisters, the role meant playing an elaborate game of dress up.

"It's your underwear, your bras, your shoes, your socks...everything is authentic," Tyler said. "It's like you just slip into character. I would walk differently, I sat differently and I carried myself differently. That was all part of it."

Of the three sisters, Pam is the good one. According to Joanna Going, who plays sister Alice, her character is the "confused one." And then there's Eleanor.

Played by Jennifer Connelly, Eleanor is seen, at least through 1950s eyes, as the bad one.

"I think she just doesn't want to live this lifestyle that's been prescribed for her," Connelly said. "This sort of cookie-cutter lifestyle where she has to wear this sort of mask. She wants something a little more real."

The three Abbott sisters are the underprivileged daughters of an overprotective father, who wants his girls to have nothing to do with the Holt brothers, the boys from the other side of town.

	Movie trailer long 5.9MB/218 sec. QuickTime movie
	Movie trailer short 1.3MB/29 sec. QuickTime movie

Billy Crudup, who plays Jacey, the older Holt brother, said he found the film intriguing because of the way it examines the time period.

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"What is interesting about exploring the 50s is that certainly there are things about the fifties that we tend to think of as truths," he said. "(It's good) to have a chance to explore them further and maybe expose that the actual truth is somewhere in between."

Truthfully speaking, there was sex in the 1950s, and the goal of Crudup's character is to bed all three Abbott girls.

In the middle of all this, there is Doug, the younger Holt brother. That role went to Joaquin Phoenix. According to Tyler, her character "really likes" Doug and thinks he's the "cat's pajamas."

And if all these entanglements weren't confusing enough, the movie has spilled over into real life . Tyler and Phoenix have ended up as a couple, back here in the '90s, that is.

 

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