WAKING THE DEAD

Year: 2000
USA: Universal
Cast: Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly, Molly Parker, Janet McTeer, Paul Hipp, Sandra Oh, Hal Holbrook, Lawrence Dane, Tony Calabretta, Ivonne Coll, Leah Pinsent
Director: Keith Gordon
Country: USA
USA: 103 mins
USA Rated: R for sexuality and language
USA Release Date: 24 March 2000 (Limited Release)

Synopsis

The romantic drama focuses on one man's idealism in the 1970s and ambition in the 1980s, encompassing the importance of family, the cost of compromise, the search for meaning in life, and the endurance of love.

It is 1972. Young Coast Guard officer Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) is passionately drawn to Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly), an idealistic activist. She becomes his great love, and he becomes hers: "We will never be apart," Sarah writes him, in a letter. But, in 1974, fate brutally cleaves their futures: Sarah is murdered in a car-bombing.

It is 1982. County attorney (DA's office) Fielding Pierce lives well in Chicago with his socialite girlfriend, Juliet Beck (Molly Parker). Juliet's uncle, Isaac Green (Hal Holbrook), is Fielding's mentor. The governor hand-picks Fielding to run for a Congressional seat. Fielding will soon have everything he's strived for...except his lost love.

Suddenly, he becomes consumed by memories, and then visions, of Sarah. Fielding's sister, Caroline Pierce (Janet McTeer), lends personal and professional support, but his life begins to unravel. Is Fielding losing his sanity, or is Sarah still alive? As the past floods into the present, Fielding struggles to focus on what is, and what was, most important to him.