Question: Build a movie plot around this: who drops off the kids at school? Linda
Answer:
Prologue. The film opens with a recollection of the day when Jim Hanson (Julian McMahon) and his wife Linda (Sandra Bullock) acquired their home. Sepia colors and their 1965 Ford Mustang set the tone and the time... (a flash of white light breaks the reverie).Day 1. A church bell is sounding as Linda awakes. She takes her daughters Bridgette (Courtney Taylor Burness) and Megan (Shyann McClure) to school, performs a few chores around the house, and puts some stickers on the sliding glass patio door. After she phone chats - "I can't believe it's Thursday already" - with her best friend Annie (Nia Long), she notices that there's a message on the answering machine. It's from Jim's cell phone. In the message Jim tells her that he meant what he said "in front of the girls the other night." The message cuts off with "That you?" as he switches to answer an incoming call. The message leaves Linda looking mystified.Later she has resumed her chores when the doorbell rings. It's Sheriff Reilly (Marc Macaulay). He tells a stunned Linda that Jim died in a car accident "yesterday". As shock rings in her ears, he explains that Jim died instantly, hit by a jackknifed truck at mile marker 220. She declines the sheriff's offer of help - she's going to tough it out - and looks up as a flock of crows takes wing. She turns back into the house bewildered, tears streaming down her stony face. In the kitchen she looks at the clock. It's 2:20 in the afternoon.When she picks up the kids, she drives as in a dream. "What's wrong, Mommy?" She can't respond. When they get home she tells her daughters that their daddy is not okay and leaves it implied that he's never coming home. She takes them in her arms and they begin to grieve. In the late afternoon Linda's mother Joanne (Kate Nelligan) is there. As Joanne helps the kids with a picture puzzle, Linda leaves a nondescript message on Annie's answering machine. Later, after Joanne puts the kids to bed, a not very consoling mother talks to her daughter of funeral arrangements and insurance...