As I right this review, the Broadway musical of this classic children's novel from the 1970s opened on Broadway to excellent reviews from the New York Times. Having just seen that a few weeks ago, I Revisited the movie and slowly remember what has Enchanted me when I seen this years ago. Jonathan Jackson, the handsome and innocent-looking Lucky Spencer from "General Hospital", is the innocent young boy who is older than he seems. In the opening scene, he drives up to an old southern mansion on a motorcycle, and the film flashes back many years to when he had first met the heroine (Alexis Biedel) whom he fell in love with.

"Do not fear death, but only the unloved life." that is the theme for the book, two movies and the new Broadway musical. It occurs in the woods in the back of the Foster mansion in the self, where Jackson's father William Hurt and mother Sissy Spacek make their home, hiding out because they are destined to live forever. Jackson falls in love with Biedel whom his older brother is forced to kidnap when she discovers the secret, and the presence of a mysterious Man in the Yellow Suit Ben Kingsley threatens to destroy their hiding place and reveal the secret, giving the potential of making them into freaks. Moving performances by the entire cast (which includes Amy Irving as the heroine's mother and Victor Garber as her father) make this truly worth watching, as does the very direct way that the screenplay presents the story.

I've always been a Sissy Spacek fan, and she is totally lovely as the kindly mother who takes Biedel under her wing as if she were her own daughter. William Hurt, who has played his share of villains and heroes, is wise and humble as Jackson's father who provides the film's moral. Along with Dianne Wiest and Alan Arkin in "Edward Ecissorhands", these two rank as the best surrogate parents in film history. Kingsley makes a great villain, his character amply described in the musical as an "evil banana". While this lacks certain elements from the novel and the musical, it moves briskly and makes its point which I have greatly accepted: a life well lived needs an ending, and hopefully, you go out with applause and thumbs up for a job well done.

One of the things that I liked about Tuck Everlasting is that it conceded that in the coming age secrets like what the Tuck family has would be harder to keep. And the Tucks have a secret well worth keeping. They were at that time before World War I acknowledging the faster methods of communication and transportation would make it impossible. In 2002 when the film was released we are now passed the industrial age and into the age of communication. You know someone would find out and post it on the web.

The secret of the Tucks is that they've found the secret of immortality in a spring located deep in the woods where they've settled. The family is parents William Hurt and Sissy Spacek and sons the brooding Scott Bairstow and the eternally youthful Jonathan Jackson.

The property however is owned by Victor Garber and Amy Irving and they've got a daughter Alexis Bledel whom they keep most sheltered. One day she wonders into the Tuck woods and meets the family. She nearly drinks from the spring and can't understand why the Tucks warn her away. But she experiences a first love with Jackson and they are a pair of the most romantic lovers you will ever meet.

It's a regular Garden of Eden the Tucks have, but there's a serpent there and it's in the form of Ben Kingsley. Kingsley has heard rumors of this fountain of youth and immortality and he's here to find it and exploit it as he feels that only certain people should enjoy immortality. As the film builds Kingsley grows more evil and more serpentine, he will really creep you out.

This film bears comparison to the Highlander movies and TV series and a bit of comparison to Sean Connery's science fiction classic Zardoz. All deal with immortality and what a trap it can be if you think about it. The Tucks have it better than Duncan McLeod, he can go if he's decapitated. A highland broadsword wouldn't even penetrate the skin of a Tuck.

Tuck Everlasting is really about Bledel and Jackson and a love that can never be. Scott Bairstow has an effective scene about the family he raised who have all gone and left him alone for an eternity.

Fitting that Tuck Everlasting should be a product of the Disney studios because the film has an aura of magic and it's fitting it come from the Magic Kingdom. It's a charming fantasy, you can't do much better with films of fantasy than this one.

In 1914, brothers Jesse Tuck (Jonathan Jackson) and Miles Tuck (Scott Bairstow) return to Treegap and their parents Angus (William Hurt) and Mae Tuck (Sissy Spacek) followed by a mysterious man (Ben Kingsley) in yellow. Winifred Foster (Alexis Bledel) is eager to live without the control of her parents (Amy Irving, Victor Garber). They own much of the forest. Winnie encounters Jesse in the woods drinking from a special spring. Miles kidnaps her back to the Tuck homestead.

It's a fine coming-of-age romance. It's very PG. It doesn't have great tension or more importantly, magic. This needs a sprinkle of that Disney magic. The young couple's romance is not that compelling and they are limited in the amount of heat. Their chemistry is strictly overwrought puppy love. There is a chance for a compelling ending reveal but the big reveal in the movie is not that compelling. It tries a little poetry and leaves it less than satisfying.