neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Crush
	John McKay Andie MacDowell, Imelda Staunton, Anna Chancellor, Kenny Doughty, Bill Paterson 2002		Half a good movie may be better than none, but the initially amusing "Crush" strains that proposition with a midway change of tone so abrupt that it sinks the endeavor. Although leggy Southern belle Andie MacDowell is an odd choice to play the headmistress of a veddy British private school in a quaint Cotswolds town, the character is said to be an American expatriate. MacDowell makes the best of it for as long as the script lets her. Kind and dedicated, Kate is in her 40s and without a man in her life until she encounters 20-something Jed (Kenny Doughty), one of her former students. They meet when he plays the organ during a funeral she attends. Soon, the couple is getting horizontal in various locales throughout the lush English countryside. But the disapproval of Kate's two best friends, down-to-earth police chief Janine (Imelda Staunton) and sarcastic, avaricious doctor Molly (Anna Chancellor), will lead to tragedy. With Bill Paterson as the town minister who covets Kate.