Bonnie in Hollywood Reporter
ALFORNOS
April 7
Her kind of town, Chicago is. Native Bonnie Hunt grew up in its blue-collar
world with Irish, Italian and Polish neighbors, trained as a nurse and worked
at Northwestern University Hospital while pursuing her acting career at the
acclaimed Second City. Set in Chicago, "Return to Me" is Bonnie's first
screenplay, co-written with Don Lake, and her directorial debut. She also
co-stars in the film with Minnie Driver, David Duchovny and David Alan Grier.
Minnie's a waitress who's successfully survived a heart transplant, lives her
lonely life above O'Reilly's restaurant, an Irish-Italian joint owned by
grandfather Carroll O'Connor, famous for his combination of boiled cabbage and
ravioli, thanks to an Italian chef played by Robert Loggia. Months ago, MGM's
Michael Nathanson began championing the film, hailing it as a "contemporary
fairy tale," in which Minnie receives the heart of David Duchovny's deceased
wife, played by Joely Richardson. And, as fairy tales would have it, she links
up with David in this bittersweet romantic comedy. Michael Nathanson joined his
MGM colleagues Alex Yemenidjian, Chris McGurk, Larry Gleason, Jerry Rich in
welcoming premieregoers to the Century Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas, with guests
later repairing to the party at the Century Club -- the evening was co-hosted
by MGM and Cosmopolitan Magazine (Minnie being its April cover girl).
"The film's about living life from day to day," says Bonnie, who had acted with
David Duchovny in "Beethoven," and liked "his funny, wry, debonair manner," so
she wrote the role of the architectural engineer Bob Rueland with him in mind.
Minnie came aboard easily. "I called, we had lunch, she loved the role of Grace
and the material, and that was it." David Alan Grier, who plays David's
veterinarian buddy, had met Bonnie on a flight to Vancouver where they filmed
"Jumanji," and he quickly agreed to join the cast, as did Chicago native Jim
Belushi, who plays Bonnie's husband and finds that "Bonnie and Don's writing
has a Second City feel, spontaneous yet real." Other Second City-ites were
cast, with Joely Richardson, who plays David's wife, finding Bonnie to be
"quite the Chicago girl ... wherever we filmed, folks would pass by and say,
'Hi, Bonnie.' " The film opens with a party scene filmed in the Gold Room of
the historic Congress Hotel that was built in 1903, and it was here that Joely
says the cast was put into the right mood with a swinging version of the
classic title song and its arrangement produced by Bonnie and the film's
composer Nicholas Pike and sung on camera by Joey Gain. Cinematographer Laszlo
Kovacs and production designer Brent Thomas worked together to create a "poetic
realism," and Brent adds that he "Gaelicized" the Twin Anchors barbecue
restaurant, a longtime hangout in Old Town, into the film's location for
Carroll O'Connor's O'Reilly's.
About the primate, the Great Kwan, who's in the film, David Duchovny found the
scene where the two are sharing some food "a learning experience. We would do
four or five takes, and Kwan was cool. But afterward, when I handed him another
zucchini strip, he'd throw it down. Finally, Kwan began handing them back to
me. So I switched to apple strips, and he liked that. A true actor! When his
motivation became tired, he needed a new one."
Minnie next stars in "Beautiful," in which she plays a driven beauty contest
queen who wants to be Miss America Miss (the Miss America folks wouldn't allow
usage of the title). "It's about deciding whether you want to be a role model
to thousands of girls or a role model to the most important one, your
daughter," says Minnie, who laughs that in her daily life she wouldn't be
caught dead in a suede bikini -- "but I wear one in 'Beautiful.' "
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