Oak Park Arms presents its popular series “You Be the Critic” at 3:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave. The 2000 film “Return to Me” will be viewed and reviewed with radio announcer Dan Kane.
This romantic comedy was directed by Bonnie Hunt and stars David Duchovny and Minnie Driver. It was also the final film by Carroll O’Connor before his death in 2001.
Happily married husband Bob Rueland (Duchovny) who works with his wife in Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo quickly has his world turned upside down when his wife, Elizabeth, is killed in a car accident. Her heart gets transplanted to a patient, Grace Briggs (Driver), who can finally begin to live a normal life. One of her first plans is to take her first trip by plane, to paint in Italy.
Although Rueland is still depressed a year later, he receives an anonymous letter from Briggs thanking him for his wife’s heart. He begins to move on with his life. At the insistence of a friend, he goes on a blind date but ends up being more interested in the waitress – Briggs.
The two begin to date and although they become very close, she is hesitant to tell him about her transplant. When she eventually finds her letter in his house, she is horrified and explains everything. Rueland doesn’t take the news well, and stunned, he leaves her.
Briggs sadly goes to Europe alone, although it doesn’t take long for him to realize he misses her, and the two reunite in Italy.
Filmed in Chicago in 1999, “Return to Me” opened at number four at the North American box office. It grossed $7.8 million its opening weekend and more than $32.5 million in its entire box office run. Many of the restaurant scenes in the movie were filmed at Twin Anchors Restaurant and Tavern in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood. The film also features the music of the Alan Gresik Swing Shift Orchestra, a swing band that still plays on Thursdays at the historic Green Mill Lounge in Chicago.
Oak Park Arms Senior Living is a rental retirement community which provides senior housing in the form of independent living. Furnished apartments are also available for a short-term stay – a weekend, a week, a month or longer.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information call 708-386-4040.
