The Last Keepers — Aidan Quinn, Zosia Mamet, and Virginia Madsen in a Story About Female Mystics
Posted on August 9, 2013 at 1:48 pm
Coming on September 10: Aidan Quinn (TV’s Elementary, Unknown, Allegiance, Rushlights, The Greening of Whitney Brown) Virginia Madsen (The Hot Flashes, The Number 23, The Astronaut Farmer), Zosia Mamet (HBO’s Girls, The Kids are Alright), and Olympia Dukakis (Picture Perfect, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Moonstruck) star in “The Last Keepers.” Rhea (Zosia Mamet) is the last in a long line of female mystics who have practiced their magical traditions in secret for centuries. She lives a quiet life in the company of her parents Abigail and John (Virginia Madsen, Aidan Quinn) and grandmother Rosemarie (Olympia Dukakis). Abigail and Rosemarie each have their own individual powers, but legend has it that a chosen one will inherit all the powers of the mystics and use them to fight evil. As Rhea becomes aware of her destiny and develops her considerable gifts, she is faced with the biggest decision of her young life.
Interview: Virginia Madsen of “The Magic of Belle Isle”
Posted on June 28, 2012 at 8:00 am
Virginia Madsen stars in the heartwarming story “The Magic of Belle Isle” as the recently-divorced mother of three girls who befriends the writer who moves in next door (Morgan Freeman). I spoke to her about making the movie, which is available now On Demand and will be in theaters July 6.
What was it like for you working with three young actresses who played your daughters? How do you develop a level of trust with them?
Well, I raised a child. I had a boy child who’s now 17 and I’ve worked with kids before. I know that this was a big job. We had a lot to do, they had a lot of dialogue and I really, really wanted them to trust me. One of the greatest things is that they all had nice parents. We struck gold with that. They were nice kids, they weren’t Hollywood-ized and the mothers really allowed me to mother their children which was incredibly trusting and generous. Slowly, I gained their trust and they could see how I wanted to be with their daughters, and that I was going to take good care of them. Before the movie started, I asked the art director and Rob if I could have a space on the set, a room that I could set up arts and crafts. Because that’s what I did with my son, and decided to bring music, and all the supplies. I said, “Just give me this room, but no one is allowed to go in it but us, that is the O’Neil house, and I don’t want a sound cart in there, I don’t want lights being stored, no makeup touches go on in this room, this is the O’Neil house and this is our sacred space.” And they loved it. And then the art department said, “Actually, there’s a sun room, we’ll make it a part of the movie.” And so when there was a break, this allowed me to keep us al together as a family and allowed them to remain focused and quiet when it wasn’t alright for them to play in the yard especially if it was raining. The next great thing was, they bonded as sisters. Madeline Carroll is really something special, and she helped shepherd the girls, she really loved those girls. She would sit and make necklaces with them. She was never bored or impatient like a lot of teenagers naturally would be.
And like her character was!
She was the polar opposite of that character, the antithesis of that. She was—I maybe saw her texting twice during the whole thing. She just stayed with us. All the girls are all so different, but then they all remained really bonded and then they brought their friends in, some of the little kids from the neighborhood came to the O’Neil house…and I’d play classical music. Spanish guitar was the thing they liked the best, so I wasn’t playing any pop music. Everything was kind of our “Zen-space” and Maddy’s brother—they all had brothers, they were there with us. This allowed them to have a real relationship with me, and so that then when we went in on the set, I was taking the little one by the hand, or I was carrying her in, and then we would sit down and simply begin the scene and it worked very well. I loved it because it’s been such a long time since I’ve been able to do arts and crafts and I never had a girl! I never had a girl, so I was so happy that I had three! And they also went home at night! Although they came over to my house quite a bit.
They did?
It’s on my twitter page somewhere. If you go into my videos, it’s a while ago…but they came over to the house and I cooked for all of them, and it was their friends, the siblings, the moms, everybody came over and I cooked this huge dinner. If you look at the video, it’s this moment that I had been building up about desert. I said, “This desert, you’re going to lose your mind. You’re going to lose your mind.” I kept saying it all day long. And now…and they’re all at the kitchen counter, and I’m standing on the other side of it and I was like…”And now…you’re going to lose your mind!” So I take out a giant, huge bag of cool-pops, you know those frozen sticks? And I held it up like the Lion King, and they screamed…”Frozen pops, oh my God!” It was a massive, big, big pot of gold.
Do you really play the piano?
I played the piano until I was about 18 and then I left it when I came out to LA to be in movies. I had to play in another movie, a western that I did with Tom Selleck called “Crossfire Trail” and I had to play Für Elise, which is something that every girl at the time played. Completely had to relearn it, it was a nightmare, but this was fun. They gave me a piano in my house—because I wanted you to see my hands playing it. So when Morgan was listening to me, you’d already had the visual in your mind that it was really me. That was very important to me.
Was this the first time you had ever met Morgan Freeman?
No, he invited me to the AFI Lifetime Achievement tribute. Can you imagine, first of all, I meet him on the red carpet. He’s tall, he’s handsome, he was in a white tuxedo, a white jacket with black tie, and he just looked so cool, man. And I just went up to him and it was just, he had that big smile and the Morgan Freeman voice and I was like, “This is going to be just fine.” We just had instant chemistry. And then, not intimidating at all, to sit through two hours of magnificence and genius of Morgan Freeman and everyone telling what a genius he is…and I’m like, “I’m the luckiest girl in the whole wide world!” I was the luckiest girl in the room that night, and it did turn out to be just a breeze. It was easy to work with him.
There’s obvious chemistry between the two of you that’s very understated and nice. That touch of the hands at the end, I have to say really got to me.
And I was trying to think, when was the last time that a touch of the hand meant so much in a movie? Thank you for noticing that.
Rated PG for thematic material, peril and language.
Profanity:
Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Some social drinking
Violence/ Scariness:
Character in peril with some injuries, sad death
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
2007
Date Released to DVD:
2007
Amazon.com ASIN:
B00005JPLE
Once upon a time there was a farmer who wanted to build a rocket ship and orbit the earth. And there were some evil ogres who wanted to stop him.
That’s the best way to describe this slight fairy tale of a film, where each shot is lovingly framed to show the golden light playing over the pastoral landscapes, set in a small town that makes Mayberry seem unfriendly and featuring a family so unconditionally loving and devoted that we seem to have come upon them mid-Hallmark commercial.
That is not to say that it is anything but warm-hearted and captivating. It is just to say that you can’t take it too seriously. In other words, don’t try this at home.
Billy Bob Thornton plays a farmer actually named Farmer. That is his last name and many people call him that, including his wife Audie (Virginia Madsen). He rides a horse in his astronaut uniform — the ultimate mash-up of American male icons. When he gets up to a small bit of vandalism he is sent for a psychological evaluation — to the local school nurse, who was once his prom date. Everyone in the town knows everyone else and knows everything about everyone else. But even his good friend at the bank can’t stop foreclosure proceedings when Farmer spends all his money on the rocket. And when he orders rocket fuel over the internet, he attracts the attention of some people outside the community. They are people from places that are very big on initials, like NASA and DOJ and WMD. They are people who are very big on laws like the Patriot Act. And they are people who have no imagination and no sense of humor when it comes to having private citizens launch rockets.
The good guys are cute and cuddly and believe in their dreams. They have family dinners where everyone talks about what should be packed for the mission. The children are devoted to their parents and have beautiful manners. The two little girls (real-life daughters of the twin brothers who made the film) are the most natural and appealing young performers since “In America.” Virginia Madsen is radiant as always as Mrs. Farmer. And there’s an adorably grizzled old grandpa (Bruce Dern) to tell Farmer what a great dad he is.
It works because of the conviction of its actors (including a surprise third act appearance by a major movie star) and its gentle, unassuming Capra-esque air. Its takeoff and flight is more butterfly than rocketship, but it’s a lovely ride.
Parents should know that there are some tense and scary moments. A character is in peril and is injured. There is a sad death. Characters use brief strong language and drink and there is a brief sexual reference.
Families who see this movie should talk about why Farmer’s dream was so important to him and why his family supported him. Why didn’t he accept the offer to go in NASA’s space shuttle? Was the government right to try to stop him? Why?
Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy films about the U.S. space program, including Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon and The Right Stuff. And they might enjoy the made-for-television movie “Salvage 1” with Andy Griffith, which became a series.