''Crush'' is a 2001

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film written and directed by John McKay and starring

Andie MacDowell Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell's known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman ...

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, and Bill Paterson.

Plot

Forty-something schoolmistress Kate and her two best friends, police superintendent Janine and doctor Molly, live in rural Britain and share their single lives and dating exploits in weekly chats. Kate has recovered from

ovarian cyst An ovarian cyst is a fluid-filled sac within the ovary. Often they cause no symptoms. Occasionally they may produce bloating, lower abdominal pain, or lower back pain. The majority of cysts are harmless. If the cyst either breaks open or causes ...

disease and fears a relapse; she hasn't been dating much. By chance, she meets Jed, a former student of hers, now a handsome twenty-something church organist. To her surprise, she ends up sleeping with him and the two embark on an unlikely relationship that's looked on with suspicion by Janine and Molly. Janine comes to believe in Kate and Jed's feelings for each other. But Molly is still dubious, showing Jed's criminal record and medical history to Kate, bringing adult dates to their dinner parties and taking her and Janine to Paris so that she will go off Jed. Conversely, this brings Kate and Jed closer together and they plan their wedding. Molly eventually attempts to prove Jed's faithlessness by seducing him, which fails but angers Kate to the extreme. After an argument about how Kate has kept their engagement quiet, Jed is thrown out of Kate's house. He is struck and killed by a passing truck; this unexpected tragedy breaks the three women up, as Kate is inconsolable and Janine blames Molly. Repressed at her home, due to her inhability to continue her work as a schoolmistress Kate, repressed herself out of this world; but, still, is not even capable of using the bathroom without crying and thinking about Jed. Kate reluctantly embarks on a mild romance with a local vicar who has always been in love with her, but when she finally agrees to marry him, she becomes ill at the altar. Molly and Janine take her away, and discover that she is pregnant with Jed's child. She decides to have the baby and raise it on her own, while the vicar meets a woman who was actually excited about him. Also, Janine starts going out with Bill (a robbery suspect) and Molly falls for a pediatrician named Eleanor. The three friends reconcile and continue to share their lives and experiences.

Cast

- Kate Scales *

- Janine *

- Molly Cartwright *

- Jed Willis * Bill Paterson - Rev. Gerald Marsden *Caroline Holdaway - Pam *Joe Roberts - Brendan *Josh Cole - PC Darren Blake * Gary Powell - Sergeant *Christian Burgess - Kate's Frenchman *

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- Bishop *

Richenda Carey Richenda Carey (born 9 April 1948 in Bitton, Gloucestershire) is a British actress who is mostly known for her roles in '' Monarch of the Glen'', ''Jeeves and Wooster'', Darling Buds of May, '' Crush'' and more recently, '' Separate Lies'' and ...

- Lady Governor *Roger Booth - Hearty Governor *

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- Stationer

Debated title

As told by John McKay, the film combines two plot lines which eventually came together. At first he wrote a play which was named "Crush" about an older woman and a younger man. Later, he met "a set of women doctors who were working too hard to get a date on Friday nights and so would get together instead, drink cheap liquor, eat chocolate, smoke cigarettes and have a competition to decide who was the saddest fucker of the week". This influenced the original play as it "sprouted more female characters" and became a movie script. McKay, who both wrote the screenplay and directed the film in 1999, wanted to name the film ''The Sad Fuckers Club'', a name which he felt fit the plot line - and which, according to him, Andie MacDowell approved of when offered the role in the film. This, however, was changed after resistance from the financiers and distributors and uneasiness on the part of test audiences, eventually reverting to the original name, "Crush". ''Crush'' met with generally mixed reviews, and has scored an average of 5 out of 10 on review aggregate site,

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crush (2001 Film) 2001 films English-language German films 2000s French-language films 2001 romantic comedy-drama films British romantic comedy-drama films German romantic comedy-drama films Films directed by John McKay 2001 comedy films 2001 drama films British female buddy films 2000s female buddy films 2000s British films 2000s German films