It's Empire Falls, Maine by the Knox River. Miles Roby (Ed Harris) runs the diner owned by Francine Whiting (Joanne Woodward). The Whitings own everything worth owning in the town. They have sold the industrial jobs and taken the cash. Francine is a cunning woman married into the family. Miles hopes to get the diner in her will. His father Max (Paul Newman) is a blunt man always looking for a handout. In flashbacks, his mother (Robin Wright Penn) tells him his father is in jail. His daughter Tick (Danielle Panabaker) broke up with her bully boyfriend who picks on loner John Voss (Lou Taylor Pucci). His brother David (Aidan Quinn) grows marijuana. He's interested in waitress Charlene (Theresa Russell). His ex-wife Janine (Helen Hunt) is selfish and thin. Her boyfriend Walt Comeau (Dennis Farina) owns the fitness club.The acting is great and it's populated by great actors. The characters are specific. Newman is the flashy one but I love Ed Harris most of all. He's put upon by everyone but holds it in reserve. There are a lot of characters which could be a problem for some people. One has allow each of these characters their due. It's a terrific TV mini-series.

I must admit that I had never watched the HBO mini-series when it aired. As a matter of fact I was just looking at the DVD selection in Wal-Mart one day and saw that the cover and description looked appealing, so I purchased it. What can I say, the characters were very strong, the cinematography, and direction was great, and the story was excellent. I can't help but love films that have you guessing every minute, and once you think you have things figured out they through a whammy on you. The all-star cast was wonderful. Ed Harris, Paul Newman,... They each added the familiar faces that make you feel as though you yourself lived in this town of Empire Falls, a town of beauty, laughter, and secrets.

The storyline is obviously excellent, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning book. The cast is comprised of some fantastic actors (Ed Harris, Paul Newman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Hunt, etc.). However, despite a previous poster's message that the film captures "Maine and Mainers," is not entirely true. Unfortunately, it's just another movie where the actors throw in the occasional Maine dialect attempt. Using words like Cah instead of Car, doesn't constitute a successful impersonation of a Mainer. I am from Kennebunkport, Maine, where a few of Ed Harris's childhood scenes were filmed. Not all of us have accents. And those who do, have something rather unique. Helen Hunt's portrayal of a Mainer was not very good at all. It takes a very good actor/actress to make a movie viewer forget that they're acting. This is one of those movies where, as a Mainer myself, I ended up critiquing the acting/accents and never became engrossed in the story. Chalk this up to just another Mystic River, Spitfire Grill, or characters like Cliff Claven on Cheers. It may be funny for the rest of the country, but people in New England can spot the poor attempt to nail the accent. The only movie where the accents were authentic was Good Will Hunting. But that was because Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck are from New England. And even in that movie, Oscar winning Robin Williams' accent was less than stellar. The movie is good, but not nearly as good as previous posts have indicated.

They go where they must, not where we want them to go. With those words from this totally terrific movie, you get touched for the 1st of many times in a simple movie about simple , plain people who like the rest of us, must struggle with the things like a difficult childhood, a bad marriage, feeling like your life didn't turn out they way you would have wished and all the other things that make life the up and down adventure it is. All of the acting is first-class, as good as any film made today. However, I must single out Ed Harris, Helen Hunt and Estelle Parsons who to me deserve Oscar nominations but of course won't get one in this made-for-HBO classic. This film is almost like therapy as one might identify their own troubles with some of the characters and see how they learned to overcome their troubles. I short, this is a real throw-back to the days 40-50 years ago when classics like this were common. This is a rare film for 2005.