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A Simple Twist of Fate

Name: A Simple Twist of Fate
Genre: Family, Comedy, Drama
Released: 1994-09-02
Cast: Steve Martin, Gabriel Byrne, Laura Linney, Catherine O'Hara, Alana Austin

1994 | 106 min | Family, Comedy, Drama

Weeknight Watchearly rating

Why it’s a Weeknight Watch

With a box office flop and middling reviews (43% on Rotten Tomatoes), it's a mixed bag. Fine if it's on; don't plan your night around it.

Based on critics, audiences, awards, box office and buzz. Details below.

Is it for you?

Who'll love it: Made for anyone who wants a laugh and families. If you loved The Secret Life of Bees or Code 3, start here. Audiences love it more than critics do: a crowd-pleaser first.
The mood: Funny with heart, feel-good.
The pace: Takes its time with its characters, at 1 hr 46 min.
What might put you off: Rated PG-13. Probably too much for younger kids.
Critics were cooler on it than audiences.

When Michael McCann is thrown over by the woman he loves, he becomes something of a misanthrope and a miser, spending all of his spare money on collectible gold coins. Living in the same town is an affluent family with two sons: John and Tanny. Tanny's a wild boy, whom John cannot control, and one night he breaks into McCann's house, and steals the gold and disappears, which nearly confirms McCann's distrust of mankind. But then, a mysterious young woman dies in the snow outside McCann's house, and her small daughter makes her way to McCann's house and into McCann's life and heart.