''The Young Girl and the Monsoon'' is a 1999

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film from Monsoon Productions and starring

Terry Kinney Terry Kinney (born January 29, 1954) is an American actor and theater director, and is a founding member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with John Malkovich, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Sinise, and Jeff Perry. Kinney is best known for his role as E ...

and

Ellen Muth Ellen Muth (; born March 6, 1981) is an American former actress best known for her role as Georgia "George" Lass in Showtime's series ''Dead Like Me'' (2003–2004 series, 2009 film). Early life Muth was born in Milford, Connecticut, to Eric ...

. Writer-director James Ryan won ''Best Screenplay'' and the ''Gold Medal'' at the Wine Country Film Festival in 2000 for the film.

Plot

''The Young Girl and the Monsoon'' centers around a fraught relationship between father and daughter. Hank, a 39-year-old photo-journalist (Kinney), has agreed to look after his 13-year-old daughter, Constance (Muth), for several weeks while his ex-wife goes on a holiday with her new husband. Hank has compartmentalized his life in such a way that his daughter doesn't know anything about his 26-year-old girlfriend, Erin (Avital). Suddenly Erin wants to marry Hank and have his children, but he can't cope, and drops her. Just as Hank has a chance of winning a prestigious journalistic award, he finds his private life a little too much to handle. His daughter cannot understand how he can take war photographs and not do anything about what he photographs. She is going through the emotional swings of a growing adolescent and the scenes between Kinney and Muth as father and daughter are seen as the most impressive aspect of the film.

Cast

as Hank *

as Constance *

Mili Avital Mili Avital is an Israeli actress. She built an international career, starting in her native Israel, starring on stage, film and television. She won the Israeli Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1991, moved to New York in 1993 to stu ...

as Erin *

Tim Guinee Timothy S. Guinee (born November 18, 1962) is an American stage, television, and feature-film actor. Primarily known for his roles as Tomin in the television series ''Stargate SG-1'' (1997–2007) and railroad entrepreneur Collis Huntington AMC' ...

as Jack *

Diane Venora Diane Venora is an American stage, television and film actress. She graduated from the Juilliard School in 1977 and made her film debut in 1981 opposite Albert Finney in '' Wolfen''. She won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Support ...

as Giovanna

Release

The film was first shown at the

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

Film Festival on 25 October 1999, then at the

Santa Barbara Film Festival The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is an eleven-day film festival held in Santa Barbara, California since 1986. The festival boasts screenings of over 200 feature films and shorts from different countries and regions. SBIFF al ...

on 4 March 2000, followed by the

Los Angeles Independent Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

on 15 April 2000. It was released in New York City on 4 May 2001.IMDb
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References

External links

* * * 1999 films 1999 comedy-drama films 1990s English-language films Films set in New York City American comedy-drama films 1990s American films {{1990s-comedy-drama-film-stub