Tuck Everlasting script

For some, time passes slowly.

An hour can seem an eternity.

For others, there's never enough.

For the Tucks, it didn't exist.

Time is like a wheel--

turning and turning, never stopping

and the woods are the center, the hub of the wheel.

It began the first week of summer

a strange and breathless time, when accident, or fate

bring lives together

when people are led to do things

they've never done before.

On this summer's day, not so very long ago

the wheel set lives in motion in mysterious ways.

It set Mae Tuck out in her wagon

for the village of Treegap

to meet her two sons as she did once every ten years.

Ma!

Miles!

Jesse!

Oh...!

Oh, I missed you.

What are you doing here?

Oh, I couldn't wait to see you.

I missed you, Jesse.

Oh, wait, I got something for you.

Oh, look at you.

I got something.

Here, look.

The Eiffel Tower.

Would you look at that.

Got it in Paris, France.

Oh, Mom, you've never seen anything

-so tall in your life. -Hello...

Oh, I got something else. I got something else.

How are you, old friend?

Your favorite-- chocolates.

Oh, I've died and gone to Heaven.

Oh, Jesse.

Miles...

Miles.

Give your mother a hug.

Ten years.

You're as cozy as barbed wire.

I have you back.

Winifred!

Winifred!

Yes, Mother?

I need a new name.

One that's not all worn out from being called so much.

Come inside this instant.

You're getting filthy!

Ow! I can scarcely breathe.

"You must suffer to be beautiful."

So say the French.

The French are crazy.

For Winnie Foster one thing was true:

the heat of summer was not nearly as stifling

as the formality of her life.

With every passing day

the feeling grew stronger.

She was coming closer to the end of something

and moving towards the beginning of something new.

Change was in the air.

It was only a question of when.

Wait for me in the car.

I won't be a minute.

In the car, Mrs. Foster.

Throw it home! Throw it home!

Come on, throw it home!

-Go! -Run to me!

Yay!

No, no, no, no, no.

Too large for tea cakes.

None of these will do.

I prefer petit fours.

What kind of a funny hat is that?

Well, look'ee here.

If it's not Miss Moneybags in her fancy car.

What's the matter?

Don't want to get your feet dirty?

Well, I'm sorry, Mrs. Foster.

Not much call for such treats out here.

Well, I could just make them up for you, special.

Winnie Foster?

You've got to be kidding!

Wow!

Winnie, run!

Run, Winnie, run!

Throw it! Throw it!

Throw it home! Come on!

Slide, Winnie, slide!

Winifred!

Oh, and they had their arms crossed

and you see, the lines were perfectly square.

Come here, come here.

I want to teach you. Come on.

Oh, all the way from France.

How about that?

Oh, look. Look-Look at this one.

I want to see, Pop. Let me see.

Look it.

Oh! Aah, he shot me!

Oh, I'm dead!

Oh, oh, my!

Oh, my!

Oh, you'll have to see this one.

Miles, look at this!

Oh... Iet's see.

Okay, come here, I want to show you.

I want to show you.

All right.

Good to have you home, son.

I'm glad to see you.

And the family together.

But don't get used to it.

War's coming, I hear.

I'm joining up.

I'm going to fight the Huns.

Get as far away from this place as I can.

Oh, you think that'll solve things, do you?

You haven't had enough killing for two lifetimes?

Somebody's on to us.

I know it.

There's a man who's been following us

and we've lost him several times, but...

he keeps coming back.

I think he knows something.

This man...

Jesse...

Whoo!

We're being tracked.

Oh, Miles, we lost him.

Don't go spoiling everything.

Yeah, we lost him, Jess...

but he keeps coming back.

It was only a matter of time before someone found us.

The world is closing in.

Entire forest is almost gone.

All except this little wood.

I saw tire marks down on the lower wash...

a few weeks ago.

There'll be more.

I don't want anyone going to town.

Not for anything, and that's that.

Tuck.

You see any strangers in the woods getting too close

you know what to do.

No exceptions.

Our time here is almost done.

I can feel it.

You'll never catch one that way.

Do you know about catching fireflies?

Afraid not, never tried.

I prefer... bigger game.

Though I suspect the strategy

is much the same.

Strategy?

One must never announce one's presence to the prey.

One must become part of the scenery--

invisible...

almost disappear.

And be patient

until the exact, right moment

arrives...

Take a prisoner.

For you?

No, thank you.

You're quite right.

A girl of your age should find...

trapping suitors more interesting

than trapping insects, anyway.

Far easier, I might add.

Have you lived here long?

Forever. Why?

I'm... Iooking for some old friends

who live hereabouts.

Thought you might help me find them.

My father practically built Treegap.

He knows everyone.

Perhaps he can help you.

Perhaps.

I quite like talking to you.

Winifred?

Winifred, who are you talking to out there?

I don't know.

He hasn't told me his name.

Good evening, madam.

Please forgive my intrusion.

This young lady tells me you've lived here forever.

I thought you might know of a certain family

goes by the name of...

I hardly know everyone, nor do I want to.

And I don't stand outside discussing such a thing

with... strangers.

Then I beg your pardon.

Good evening, young lady.

Madam.

This is why I worry about you, Winifred.

You don't have the sense not to talk to a man like that.

A proper education gains one entre into society.

Your mother and I have given this a great deal of thought.

Middlehouse Academy for Girls

in Pensford, has an excellent reputation.

Middlehouse?

But that's a terrible place, everyone says so.

It's like a jail.

Nonsense.

Girls emerge from there as refined young ladies

well-versed in etiquette and manners,

both of which you are sorely lacking.

But I don't want to be one of those girls.

Which is precisely why you must go.

I cannot let your unbridled nature

ruin your chances for a respectable future.

Winifred... I'm sorry...

but we have to do what's best for you.

I won't do it.

I'm not like those girls.

I won't go!

Winifred!

I won't go!

Winnie Foster was to be sent 500 miles away to be educated.

But what her parents didn't understand

was she only wanted to step just outside her fence...

so she did.

What in these quiet woods should be so forbidden?

Winnie had always sensed a mystery

waiting for her there.

It was a place so entirely different from what she knew

so far away from her tight, pruned world.

Ah!

Ah...

How long have you been standing there?

Not long at all.

I was only walking past, and l...

Well, you shouldn't...

be in these parts of the woods.

It's best you turn around and go home.

Well, go on, now, get!

Excuse me, but I own these woods, and...

I'll go on and get when I want to.

You own these woods?

Yes, I do.

What's your name?

Winifred.

Winnie... Foster.

A Foster?

Well, I'll be.

Is that a fact?

Well... Winnie Foster, like I was saying

you need to turn around and go home.

It just so happens that I was on my way home

before you made your rude suggestion

and I would be happy to continue on my way

if I only knew which way to go.

In other words, you're lost?

I'll point you home.

I'd be much obliged.

But I want a drink first.

Wait... no!

No!

What?

You don't want that water.

Uh, it's poisoned.

I saw you drink some.

Well, now I'm feeling sick.

You don't look ill.

I'm dry as dust.

I said, leave it alone!

Let go of me! My father will have you arrested!

You're not going to go and tell him, now, are you?

Hey! Come back!

Don't run away!

Come back!

Where you going so fast, Miss?

Miles, wait!

-No! No! -You know what Tuck said, Jesse.

-No exceptions. -Help!

You can't do this.

Stop! Let go!

We can't.

Miles!

Miss Foster!

Miss Foster!

Miss Foster!

Where are you?!

Ho.

We're stopping here.

Not a word out of you, hear me?

Miles!

-What are you doing? -No!

Let the poor girl go.

There's no reason to be frightened, young lady.

I caught her at the spring with Jesse.

She's a Foster.

Oh, Lord.

It's finally happened.

I want to go home, please.

I want to go home.

There, there, child. Please don't cry.

We're not bad people.

We'll take you home just as soon as we can.

I promise.

Miles, go find your father.

He's across the lake.

He'll know what to do with her.

Tell Jesse I'm going to fix that mouth of his.

I've heard that.

Have you?

It's, it's my little music box.

I found it in the forest one day.

Just waiting for me, I expect.

I've had it a long, long time.

Oh!

I put my baby boys to bed with it every night.

Gave 'em such sweet dreams.

I'm sure my boys didn't mean you any harm.

Then why did they bring me here this way?

Why am I here?

You have every right to be upset.

And I know your family must be...

worried sick about you.

Where's the child?

She's no child... Angus.

Does she know?

Why do you think I brought her...?

Yeah, but now she knows about us, thanks to you.

Shh! Shh!

She's a Foster, she only knows...

Know what?

Miss Foster, this is my husband, Angus Tuck.

Angus, meet Miss Foster.

Hello, Miss Foster.

She's the most important event

that's taken place in this house in 80 years.

You hungry?

Oh, well, let's, let's all eat.

Yeah.

Jesse, pass your mother a plate, please?

Mmm, where's the fish?

Oh, they weren't biting for some reason.

'Cause Pa can't fish?

Don't matter. There's plenty.

I catch fish.

If there's no fish, there's no fish

if you keep scaring the fish away.

Mmm, this looks good.

Oh! Isn't this nice?

Everybody sitting down together and having Miss Foster here.

It's just like having a party.

My father will come looking for me.

Your father... will cut down the entire forest

the way things are changing around here.

Make himself a very rich man.

Oh, now, let's not ruin a perfectly good meal

with a lot of talk.

My father has plenty of money.

He'll pay.

Anything you want.

We don't want your father's money, Miss Foster.

Then let me go home.

We will.

We'll let you go home... just like I promised.

Directly.

We'll need to be able to trust her first

before we're sending her back to her folks.

Trust her? We can't trust her.

Or any normal people.

She'll turn on us in a second.

No, she won't.

You're a fool.

You don't even realize what you've done here.

Him.

It's him.

Robert!

I expect you to find her, Henry.

That's your job.

I've already wired her description down the main line.

They'll keep a lookout

and we'll get up a search party come morning.

My wife is certain that this man wearing a yellow suit

has something to do with Winifred's disappearance.

And Miss Foster says so based on...?

Her instincts.

Hmm.

Well, maybe you better step in here, Mr. Foster.

Am I whom you're looking for?

I do believe I fit the description.

My wife said she saw you talking to my daughter.

Yes, I did.

She's a charming girl, full of fire.

Perhaps too much.

She's gone, is she?

Looks like she... ran away.

Did she now?

Somehow I'm not surprised.

My daughter did not... run away.

And I'm not interested in what surprises you, sir.

I want to know if you know anything

of her whereabouts.

No, Mr. Foster.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I do not.

I am quite coincidentally here in search of someone myself.

I'm seeking a family

that used to live in these environs.

I thought the constable could

help me locate them, but ironically, Mr. Foster

your daughter thought you could help.

Name of Tuck.

Long lost relatives.

I-I can't help you.

Nor I you.

At least not now.

However, I'd be happy

to search your woods for you, Mr. Foster.

I'm rather talented at finding people.

I just might meet with success.

Good evening, Constable.

Find out what happened to her, Henry.

Please.

She's our only child.

Angus made that cradle.

Brought it all the way from Scotland.

Oh, it's rocked a few Tucks.

There you go.

The breeze off the lake will keep you cool all night.

The boys sleep up in the loft when they're home

so you'll have your privacy.

Oh, that corset looks painful.

May I help you off with it?

Oh, honestly, I can't understand

why women torture themselves this way.

It's no way to live.

Do you have a daughter?

A granddaughter.

And a grandson.

Anna and Beau.

Oh, Miles loved them so.

What happened?

They died.

Their mother, too.

I'm afraid the good parts of Miles died along with them.

You'll have to forgive what's left of him.

I'm sorry.

Well, it's... it's the way things are, Miss Foster.

Can I call you Winnie?

Do you have brothers and sisters?

No, it's only me.

My mother...

There.

So where do they go?

Oh, they go different places, do different things.

Miles can do carpentry and he's good with his hands.

Jesse, now, he seems to have settled himself.

Of course, then, he's...

he's young yet.

Well...

I hope you will be comfortable here.

It's a good feeling having another woman here.

Try and get some sleep now.

Hello?

Have you lost your way, friend?

Not hardly, Reverend.

I'm looking for a family name-- Tuck.

Are you familiar with it?

Tuck. Tuck?

I'm afraid I can't help you.

There are no Tucks in this cemetery that I know of.

No, I wouldn't think so.

Ha!

Or in any other.

Tell me, Reverend

you who have attended so many deathbeds...

what is it people most desire

as they face the end of their lives?

More time?

Well, I suppose.

Exactly.

They'd give almost anything, I imagine, for one more year.

Imagine what they'd give for all eternity.

Sir, I don't quite understand what...

You will.

Reverend, are you prepared to die right now, this instant?

If it's God's will.

What if it is my will?

What if you could be eternal?

Right now, this instant?

Without having to face the uncertainty of death?

Hmm?

You'd like that, wouldn't you?

No muss, no fuss.

Invincible to disease.

Never having to suffer the stench and rot of old age.

Forever young.

You speak blasphemy, sir.

Fluently.

Good night, Reverend.

Hey, Winnie Foster, you asleep?

Not anymore.

Good.

Hey.

Listen.

How would you like to see the Eiffel Tower?

What?

Someday.

No, now.

While the day is still ours.

Get those dogs over there.

Yes, sir.

Come on, boys, let's go.

Henry, this is Winifred's nightgown.

Give it to the dog handlers.

Start in the north end.

Let's split up when we get to the lake.

We'll find her.

I know we will.

Winifred!

Miss Foster!

Winnie!

Winifred Foster!

Miss Foster!

Winifred!

Over here!

I found something!

There it is.

This is the Eiffel Tower?

The one in Paris, it's pretty tall.

Mine's two feet higher.

Here.

Come on.

Have you really seen the real one in Paris?

Yes, I have.

And climbed 1,652 stairs to the top.

Much easier than this.

Yes.

You doing all right?

I think so.

You're doing great.

Here.

If I went to the Eiffel Tower

I would take one of those elevators.

Not with me.

You'd take off your shoes

and walk up every single solitary step.

How old are you?

Do you really want to know?

Yes.

104.

I'm serious.

So am l.

Let's just call it 17.

There's my Paris.

The view from the Eiffel Tower can't be better than this.

I've seen a lot of views, and this is one of the best.

Come on.

Winnie Foster was beginning to lose track of time.

Had she been there a day, a week, a month?

It seemed to Winnie that the Tucks lived in a way

the rest of the world had forgotten.

They were never in a hurry and did things the slow way.

For the first time

Winnie felt free to explore, to ask questions, to play.

Me?

I'm going to see the world.

Every speck of it.

Heck, I may even find some new continents or something.

I mean, I've been to a lot of places

but the world is huge!

Jesse Tuck, what-what are you doing?

What does it look like?

Woo-hoo!

Woo! Ah, whoo.

Come on!

I can't!

Why?

You're not afraid of a little cold water, are you?

No.

Are you afraid of me?

No.

Well, what then?

I can't swim.

You're joshing me.

I wish I were.

So, you're afraid you'll drown, right?

Swallow too much water, sink to the bottom and die.

Thank you for putting it so vividly.

And, yes, considering I'd sink like a rock

drowning is a fair concern.

Well, I guess I'm just going to have to enjoy this

all by myself.

Hmm...

Hmm!

Ah, Jesse!

Hey, hey, it's okay.

Come here, come here, come here.

I've got you, I've got you.

I've got you, relax.

Relax against me.

You all right?

I think so.

Whoo!

You did it!

I did it!

Ah, it feels wonderful.

I'm weightless.

That's 'cause we're carrying you, see?

The water and me.

We're both carrying you.

You like the feeling?

I love it.

Jesse, don't let go!

It's okay, it's okay.

There's no chance of that, Winnie Foster.

I'm never going to let you go.

You know, I don't like being laughed at by a cheat.

Now "cheat" is a nasty word, sir.

I much prefer "card sharp."

You are looking for trouble, aren't you, mister?

Yes, sir, I sure am.

Going outside!

Come on!

Perhaps next time...

Come on!

He can't hurt me!

Whoo!

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Excuse me, citizen.

You hear that?

Tuck says it's the most melancholy sound

in all of nature.

Listen.

Just listen.

They're playing for you.

Whoo! Yeah!

I wish this moment could last forever.

Forever?

You want to spend forever with me, Winnie?

I do.

You know, we could see the world together.

We could do everything together.

Have a million moments like this one that...

never, never stop.

There's a part about us you don't know--

the part I've sworn not to tell you.

The secret?

The reason you don't want anyone to find out about you?

I knew it.

You're... you're bank robbers or grifters.

You are the first human I've ever met

I wanted to know the truth.

Jesse Tuck, you're the first human I've ever met

that I've ever wanted to...

to...

...to do that.

Winnie, listen.

Remember the giant oak tree

at the center of the wood where we met?

The little spring bubbling up you saw me drink from?

You remember when I told you I was 104 years old?

Well...

it's the honest truth.

I'm going to live forever.

I'm never going to change.

The same with Miles and Tuck and Mae.

Something happened to us.

As far as I know, I'm... I'm going to be 17

until the end of the world.

It's the spring, Winnie.

The water, something's wrong with it.

It stops you right where you are.

If you had a drink of it today, you'd stay just like you are.

Don't you wish he'd told you...

before you kissed him?

Did he tell you

immortality isn't all the preachers crack it up to be?

Hey, leave her alone, Miles.

Oh, now... you want her to hear it, Jesse boy.

She's the first person you want to tell the truth to.

You just don't want me to have what you lost.

Stop this...

...both of you

and tell me the truth.

I want to know.

We all had a drink...

...except for the cat-- that's important.

The water tasted like...

Heaven.

Floated over your tongue like a cloud.

Tuck carved a "T" in the trunk, to mark where we'd been.

We moved on west, looking for a place to settle down.

Put up a house for Mae and Tuck

and a little shed for Jesse and me.

That was the first time we figured there was something...

peculiar.

Jesse fell 30 feet, landed right on his neck.

He was up on his feet again

before Mae could work up a good cry.

Didn't hurt him a bit. No broken bones... nothing.

That's not all.

Not by a long shot.

Things began to happen.

Some brushpoppers mistook

Mae's horse for a deer.

Thing is, the bullets didn't kill him.

Barely even left a mark.

Then Tuck got bitten

by a rattlesnake, and you know what?

He didn't die...

...but the cat did

of old age.

And Miles got married.

Daddy!

Beau.

Little Anna.

Tuck figured it early on.

It's the spring.

We all drank from it, even the horse.

Had to be... the source of our changelessness.

I begged her to come back... for me

and find the spring and drink from it.

The children, too.

It was our only hope to be together.

She made up her mind

I'd sold my soul to the Devil...

...and she left me.

She took my babies with her.

Everyone... pulled away after that.

There was talk of witchcraft... black magic.

I went looking for wars to fight...

and I saw brave men die at Vera Cruz...

and then Gettysburg--

thousands, in the blink of an eye...

...but not me.

I couldn't die...

...Iike little Anna.

The influenza took her before she's 15.

And Beau.

He'd be almost 80 now

if he were still alive.

And my sweet...

...my sweet young bride.

She died in an insane asylum...

...old and alone.

But I'm still here.

I'm still here.

Winnie Foster, you're the only other person in the world

who knows about us.

We'll have to have a talk.

Pa.

Come on.

Look around you.

It's teeming life.

It's flowers and trees and frogs.

It's... it's all part of the wheel.

It's always changing; it's always growing

Iike you, Winnie.

Your life is never the same.

You were once a child.

Now, you are about to become a woman.

One day, you'll grow up

and you'll do something important.

You'll have children, maybe, and then one day

you'll go out...

just like the flame of a candle.

You'll make way for new life.

That's a certainty.

That's the natural way of things.

And then, there's us.

What we Tucks have, you can't call it living.

We just... are.

We're like rocks, stuck at the side of a stream.

Listen to me.

Winnie, you know a dangerous secret.

If people find out about the spring

they'll trample all over each other

to get to that water.

There's one thing I've learned about people.

Many will do anything, anything not to die

and they'll do anything to keep from living their life.

Do you want to stay stuck as you are

right now, forever?

I've just got to make you understand.

I don't want to die. Is that wrong?

No.

No human does...

but i-it's part of the wheel...

the same as being born.

You can't have living without dying.

Don't be afraid of death, Winnie.

Be afraid of the unlived life.

Your tea, sir.

She's with them now.

I came directly here,

knowing how tormented you must be.

We-we just want her back safely.

Course you do.

Dreadful business, kidnapping.

Fortunate I was witness.

I'm perhaps the only person...

who knows where to find her.

Just what is your game, sir?

What is my game?

You detect in me a playful mood?

"Playful" is not the word I had in mind.

What I have in mind is a simple, clear-cut trade.

You see, I very much like your woods

not for their timber, mind you

but for their natural assets.

Wh-What is it you want?

You want your daughter.

I want your woods.

You're involved in this, aren't you?

If you have touched my daughter...!

I have my faults, Mr. Foster.

Kidnapping is not amongst them.

These are rough people, the ones who took her.

No telling what they might do.

Unless we do what you say.

Give the man whatever he wants.

Done and done.

Nice to have things legal and tidy, don't you agree?

You're an intelligent, reasonable man, Mr. Foster.

I'm seldom wrong as a judge of character.

Have your friendly constable on hand

to make the appropriate arrests.

Your terrible ordeal is as good as over.

I'll get there before you.

We have to move quickly.

They were packing to leave.

What kind of horrible people must these kidnappers be?

There is evil in the world, Mr. Foster.

There aren't fences high enough to keep it out.

Bring your men directly to my house.

I'm going with you.

It isn't fair, Tuck.

No, it isn't...

but when has life ever been fair?

How am I going to take you home

when I can't make my feet move from this spot?

If I could die tomorrow, I'd do it...

just to spend one more night with you.

Forgive me for interrupting such a tender moment.

Hello, Winifred.

Everyone's been so worried about you.

I'm relieved to find you so well.

You know this man?

I met him once.

Hello, Mr. Tuck.

You have no idea what a pleasure it is to meet you.

You're the man who's been following my boys.

Been expecting you.

Yes, and here I am.

Tell me, is it a relief... to finally be discovered?

Over a century of hiding out must have taken its toll on you.

Who are you?

And how do you know so much about us?

I first heard about your family from my grandmother.

She knew a woman in a mental facility

who used to... rant and ramble about a family

who never grew old and never died.

This woman, she used to call out a name.

What was it, now?

Anna.

Crazy old woman.

Kept on talking about a music box.

It seems the melody had a calming effect on her children.

I'm sure you know it, Mrs. Tuck?

You have no right...

to come to our home... and bring us such pain.

There, good mother.

I mean no harm.

Tell us, sir.

What is it you want?

Well, you see, the Fosters have given me these woods

in exchange for bringing young Winifred

back home to them.

I have the papers, all signed and legal.

Gives me the rights to the forest

and everything in it.

Don't be alarmed.

I'll let you stay here... on my land

if you prove cooperative.

Cooperative?

I want you to take me to the spring.

I don't know what you mean.

Don't insult me, Mr. Tuck.

It's immediately clear to me

that the water's powers have been wasted on...

unimaginative people like you.

I intend to make

this fountain of youth, as the simpletons would call it

available to those who deserve it...

for a price, of course.

You'll die of old age before I'll take you.

Is that so?

Then, perhaps Winifred will!

No!

Jesse!

Yes!

Bravo!

Come now, Winifred.

I'm feeling thirsty.

Show me where the spring is.

Perhaps I'll let you have a drink.

After all...

...then we can spend... eternity together.

Winnie, Winnie, come here.

It's okay. It's okay, I gotcha.

Pa.

There they are!

Winnie Foster!

I see her!

I got her!

Circle around to the right!

Watch the water!

Go!

Don't let anyone get away!

Jesse, come on.

Winnie!

Block that trail!

It's my father.

Keep them alive!

Be careful of the girl! Winnie!

Let's go!

Wait...

Get on.

Behind the house, men!

He's setting the house on fire!

Winnie!

You're all right. You're all right.

We found you. You're safe.

You're safe now.

Everything's all right.

Winnie.

Hyah!

The hall clock chimed the hour.

Outside, the wind was still.

Everything, it seemed, was waiting.

We just want to understand what happened.

Winnie... try, please.

They didn't kidnap me.

I was with them because I wanted to be.

She doesn't know

what she's saying.

The Tucks were kind to me.

They're my friends.

If they didn't kidnap you, why on earth

did that woman club that man over the head with a shotgun?

Because Mae Tuck was protecting me.

Doesn't matter anyway.

That fella died. It's a murder charge now.

I didn't much like the man

but that won't stop that poor woman from hanging.

Miss is an eyewitness.

She'll have to testify.

Oh, my God.

I figured you might want this.

Doesn't exist, far as I'm concerned.

I sure am sorry about all this.

Good day.

Thank you, Henry.

Winnie.

Jesse!

Oh, it's you.

I was afraid I would never see you again.

I need you to help me.

I need you to help us.

Mae can't go to the gallows.

She won't die.

She can't die.

They're going to find out our secret.

We have to get them out.

Help me!

Please, help me!

Somebody, help me!

Please, someone help!

Please! Help!

All right.

Help me, please!

All right!

Help!

Pl... Please!

Help me! You have to stop them!

They're after me!

Miss F... Miss Fo... Who's after you?

The people who kidnapped me!

They're going to take me away again!

My parents couldn't stop them!

They're right outside!

You have to stop them, please!

Help!

They'll kill me if they find me!

Please, they're going to kill me, please!

Stay right there!

I'll handle this.

Hurry!

Help!

Come out and meet your doom!

Hell is upon you!

Stop right there!

You're under arrest!

Come on, we have to hurry.

The boys are outside.

Stay back, now!

I'll shoot!

My dear, sweet Winnie.

What I wouldn't do to keep you.

I wish you were ours... for Jesse.

For all of us.

You have to hurry and get away from here.

Winnie...

Winnie, come with me.

There's nothing for you here.

We can be together forever.

If she comes with us, they'll hunt us down.

They'll never stop looking.

Tuck is right.

If I go with you

it'll be too dangerous for all of you.

I can't go without you.

You have to.

Go back to the spring.

Drink from it.

When it's safe... I'll come back for you.

Will you?

I have to show you the Eiffel Tower, don't l?

1,652 steps to the top.

Winnie...

until we're together again...

wake up with the dawn.

I will.

We got to go... before it's too late.

Winnie Foster...

I will love you till the day I die!

She's going fast

but you can have a couple of minutes with her.

How are you?

"...and to Almighty God

"we commend the soul of our sister

"and we commit her body to the ground.

Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."

"...Resurrection into eternal life

"through our Lord Jesus Christ;

"at whose coming in glorious Majesty to judge the World

"the Earth and the Sea shall give up their Dead;

"and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him

"shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious Body;

"according to the mighty working whereby he is able

to subdue all things unto himself."

Mother?

I was just wondering

what it is about these woods you love so much.

Mother, are you all right?

I'm going to miss her, too.

Oh...

Every time I look at you, you're different.

I'm losing you, too.

I'm right here.

Forgive me, Winnie.

I just wanted to keep you my little girl forever.

Go back to the spring.

When it's safe, I'll come back for you.

What we Tucks have, you can't call it living.

We just... are.

We're like rocks stuck at the side of a stream.

The first weeks of summer were long over.

There was a feeling

that the wheel was turning again...

...slowly now, but soon to go faster.

Winnie and her family left Treegap to see the world.

She wasn't certain what herjourney might bring

but this much she knew--

it would be something of her own choosing.

For some, time passes slowly.

An hour can seem an eternity.

For others, there's never enough.

For Jesse Tuck, it didn't exist.

Tuck said it to Winnie the summer she turned 1 5:

Do not fear death, but rather the unlived life.

You don't have to live forever.

You just have to live.

And she did.

"Tuck Everlasting" is based on a novel well known to middle school students but not to me, about a romance between two teenagers, one of whom is 104. It contains a lesson: "Do not fear death--but rather the unlived life." Wise indeed. But wiser still was Socrates, who said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." The immortals in "Tuck Everlasting" have not examined their endless lives, and the teenage mortal scarcely has a thought in her pretty little head.

The movie, shot in rural Maryland (Blair Witch country), tells of a young woman named Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel) who feels stifled by strict family rules. Her mother (Amy Irving) frowns disapprovingly on just about anything, but is especially certain that Winnie should never talk to strangers or walk alone in the woods. One day, Winnie up and walks in the woods, and meets a young man named Jesse (Jonathan Jackson). He warns her against drinking from a spring at the foot of a big old tree, and then his older brother Miles (Scott Bairstow) grabs her and brings her back to their forest cottage on horseback.

These are the Tucks. Mae and Angus, Mom and Dad, are played by Sissy Spacek and William Hurt. Years ago, they drank from the spring and have become immortal. "The spring stops you right where you are," Winnie is told, and that's why Jesse has been 17 for all these years. Although this is not explained, it must stop your mental as well as your physical aging, because at 104, Jesse is not yet desperately bored by being 17. Earlier, Angus Tuck had spied a stranger in a yellow coat skulking about, and warned the family: "Any strangers in the woods--getting too close--you know what to do. No exceptions." So it appears Winnie must die to protect the secret of the Tucks and their spring. But first Mae Tuck wants to give the poor girl a square meal, and as it becomes clear that Winnie and Jesse are soft on one another, the mean Miles teases: "Don't you wish he'd told you before he kissed you?" (His own mother says Miles is "warm as barbed wire.") The movie has been handsomely mounted by Jay Russell, whose previous film was "My Dog Skip" (2000), a classic about childhood that was entirely lacking the feather-brained sentimentality of "Tuck Everlasting." The new movie is slow, quiet, sweet and maddening in the way it avoids obvious questions: Such as, if one sip from the spring grants immortality, why do the Tucks remain for a century in their cottage in the woods? I know what I'd do: Spend 10 years apiece in the world's most interesting places. And don't tell me they're afraid city folk will notice how old they are, since the boys live in town and Mae visits them every 10 years.

The movie oozes with that kind of self-conscious piety that sometimes comes with the territory when award-winning young people's books are filmed ("Harry Potter" is an exception). The characters seem to lack ordinary human instincts and behave according to their archetypal requirements. How else to consider the Man in the Yellow Suit (Ben Kingsley), who, if he had given the matter a moment's thought, would know he could stalk the Tucks more successfully with a brown suit? Winnie's father (Victor Garber) is a rather distant man, as befits the form for this genre, in which the women are plucky and the men are either sinister or inessential, unless they are cute teenage boys, of course.

The movie is too impressed with its own solemn insights to work up much entertainment value; is too much fable to be convincing as life; is awkward in the way it tries to convince us Winnie's in danger when we're pretty sure she's not. Even its lesson is questionable. Is it better to live fully for a finite time than to be stuck in eternity? The injunction to live life fully need not come with a time limit. That's why the outcome of the romance is so unsatisfactory. I dare not reveal what happens, except to say that it need not happen, that the explanation for it is logically porous, and that many a young girl has sacrificed more for her love. Besides, just because you're 17 forever doesn't mean life loses all delight. You can get rid of that horse and carriage and buy a motorcycle.

Some of my fondest memories of childhood are the nights my mother and I would sneak out to the movies. What a treat to have my mom to myself and have a real girls' night out -- I imagine it must have made me feel terribly grown up, to be going out to the movies, at age 8 or 9, without my brothers and at night. That's conjecture -- I don't really remember at all how the act of going to the movies made me feel.

What I do recall vividly are the movies themselves. Freaky Friday. The Bad News Bears. Movies like that. I'll have to ask my mom whether it was a conscious decision to take me to movies about strong, spunky little girls -- maybe she's sorry to have contributed in such a way to my continuing hardheadedness. Boy, did I think Tatum O'Neal and Jodie Foster were cool.

If my mom and I could rewind 25 years, we'd probably be sneaking out to see Tuck Everlasting. No, it's not about a scrappy girl wise beyond her tender years -- or wiseacre beyond her tender years. Kids are nicer now, and Tuck's Winnie Foster is just the kind of very nice, respectable, well-behaved girl we all (supposedly) want our daughters to be. But if Tatum and Jodie were unbroken colts who needed (and got) just enough taming to be civilized, and showed girls of the 70s that the middle ground didn't have to be so dull, then Alexis Bledel, who plays Winnie, does the same for today's little girls: She's the little lady who learns not to compromise herself too much to the expectations of parents and society.

Tuck is based upon the apparently beloved Natalie Babbitt novel -- I'd never even heard of it, but I can clearly see what's to love: 15-year-old Winnie, trapped in her literally straitlaced, upper-class Edwardian world, yearns to break free, if only for an afternoon's walk in the woods or the chance to run bases in a game of street baseball. Her parents -- played to formal, confined perfection by Amy Irving (Traffic) and Victor Garber (Legally Blonde) -- love her dearly but err, as parents often do, too much on the side of caution in their protection of her. It's a situation that, in the big picture, many a young girl can identify with.

And the lovely romantic fantasy that comes to her rescue is one that plays well to misfit girls and boys alike: the delicious idea that a family who appreciates the inner, secret you will sweep you away to your "real" life. Winnie finds hers hiding in the very woods her father owns: the Tucks, whose big family secret makes them more misfit than Winnie could imagine and more desperate for company than they're willing to admit. Angus and Mae Tuck (William Hurt: A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and Sissy Spacek: In the Bedroom, both delightful) are the sweet flip side of her parents, jovial and earthy, and their sons are a revelation, too: adult Miles (Scott Bairstow: The Postman), who nurses a simmering anger, wearing on his sleeve more emotion than evinced by both of her parents combined, and 17-year-old Jesse (Jonathan Jackson: Insomnia).

Ah, Jesse. He's dreamy. He's free-spirited. He's just what a sheltered girl like Winnie needs to stir first feelings of delicate passion. Bledel and Jackson are, as is usually the case, older than their characters -- both are 20, and just a few years makes a tremendous difference at this age -- but their tentative explorations of young love are charmingly portrayed, and with delicacy enough so that you never have to cover the children's eyes.

The things that'll unsettle kids are the things they'll just be on the edge of starting to understand... just like Winnie. Like the mysterious Man in the Yellow Suit (Ben Kingsley: Triumph of Love), who's hunting the Tucks and, like a big bad wolf hinting at the darker side of love -- lust -- lets Winnie know, in as politely sleazy a way as possible, how attractive she is. Like the choice Winnie must make already about the course the rest of her life will take. Ever so gently as they're presented, Tuck Everlasting is full of scary realities of growing up, of the dangers and decisions inherent in navigating successfully to adulthood.

And that's a good thing. It's what makes for a story that stays with kids, becomes more meaningful to them as grownups, and will make them want to share it with their own children years from now.

Odd as it may seem at first, White Oleander -- the many-ways-in-which-women-can-be-messed-up flick -- covers much the same ground, though from a wholly unfanciful and much more pragmatic perspective. It's the kind of movie Mom and I would have snuck out to when I was a young teenager, when the far more blatant hints of and drugs would be slightly less likely to make me squirm in my seat with embarrassment.

Here it's Astrid Magnussen (Alison Lohman: The Thirteenth Floor) who's the misfit searching for a family to love her real self, though it's not by choice. She was fine and happy with her socially and morally unconventional artist mother, Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer: I Am Sam)... until Ingrid went to prison for killing her boyfriend in a fit of jealousy. Now, Astrid -- exactly the same age as Winnie -- is shuttled from one dysfunctional foster home to another, molding herself temporarily to each interim-mom just at the stage in her life where she needs to find out who, exactly, she is herself. There's the contradictory, clothes-obsessed, born-again Christian Starr (Robin Wright Penn: The Last Castle) and then the insecure, immature actress Claire (Renée Zellweger: Bridget Jones's Diary) -- both of whom want to be her best friend, both of whom succeed for a while. And then there's Astrid's Jesse, Paul (Patrick Fugit: Almost Famous), an artist and fellow denizen of the state foster home Astrid does a few stints in -- he's content to simply let her be herself, something none of the women in her life, including Ingrid, can do.

For all its explicitness -- it doesn't dance around real issues facing kids today, from depressive alienation to substance abuse to ual exploitation -- and for the flawlessness of its performances, Oleander never touches the raw nerve it should, surprisingly so: the film comes from British director Peter Kosminsky, who gave us the emotionally devastating TV film Warriors. Has he gone Hollywood? Oleander seems constructed to win Oscar nominations instead of the minds and hearts of audiences, feng-shuied into fabricated exactness at the expense of an organic authenticity. What's pretty and properly arranged at first glance becomes more artificial and colder the longer you look.

Not a filmgoing experience, in other words, that today's moms and daughters, sneaking out for a night at the movies, are likely to look back on with particular fondness.

"Tuck Everlasting" is a neo-vampire movie for tender-hearted preadolescent girls who are afraid of . If that's your thing, go for it. But there's something genuinely creepy, and not in the good way, about this story of a family whose members, having drunk from a magic forest spring, stay exactly the same for hundreds of years. They're forever doomed to keep to themselves and watch wistfully as the world swirls by around them in its eternal spin-cycle of renewal.

After a pert 15-year-old rich-girl outsider named Winnie (Alexis Bledel) accidentally stumbles onto the Tucks' secret babbling brook, daddy Angus Tuck (William Hurt) explains ruefully, "What we Tucks are, you can't call it livin'." You can't call it actin' either, but that's not even the major problem with "Tuck Everlasting." Adapted by director Jay Russell ("My Dog Skip") from Natalie Babbitt's popular 1975 young-adult novel of the same name, the picture has trouble finding the right tone: It wobbles ineptly between enchantment, spookiness and gassy profundity. "Don't be afraid of death -- be afraid of the unlived life" is the movie's message, delivered (more than once) at the expense of a coherent story with any real sense of drama.

But then, lessons are really all that matter in movies like this one. "Tuck Everlasting" is set in 1914; the Tucks have been kicking around since early in the century before -- they're lost people in some very old clothes. Mae (Sissy Spacek, who manages to hold onto some shred of dignity in a dismal role) and Angus head up this forlorn clan. Miles (a glowering Scott Bairstow), the embittered older son, used to be married, but when his wife found out the family secret, she took the couple's two kids and hit the road. (In a wordless flashback sequence, we see her flashing her eyes angrily at this family of weirdos, and we don't for a minute blame her.) The youngest Tuck, Jesse (Jonathan Jackson), is 17 going on 104 and has never been laid, so you can imagine what goes on in his head when he lays eyes on the luscious Winnie.

That's suggested, of course, but "Tuck Everlasting," by virtue of being a squeaky-clean tale for young adults, can't get anywhere near an even remotely believable truth about the nature of young love and lust. Protective parents will be pleased to note that there's very little ual innuendo in "Tuck Everlasting," save a chaste scene in which Jesse and Winnie cavort, semiclothed, under a waterfall. And good old-fashioned pioneer values are upheld throughout: We get to see Mae kill a bad guy by clocking him on the head with a shotgun. "Tuck Everlasting" is a movie with its priorities in the right place.

Note to readers: this review contains spoilers. A key plot point not revealed until mid-way through the movie is discussed in some detail; those who wish to have a "virgin" movie experience would be best served by reading this review after seeing the film.

Tuck Everlasting is not a typical Disney family film ?thank god. Charming and thought-provoking, this is the kind of movie with the sweetness necessary to appeal to younger (although not too young) viewers and the philosophical richness to draw in veteran movie-goers.

"Do you want to live forever?"

That question has become a prominent "payoff" line for movies and television shows, but, underneath the flip tone in which it is often asked hides a query that expresses humankind's greatest longing ?immortality. The first reaction of most people when asked that question would be to answer "yes". After all, immortality (with invulnerability and eternal youth thrown in at no extra charge) is a heady possibility. Unquestionably a blessing?or is it? Think about the price. It's not immediately apparent, but it is an unpleasant one. Never dying means never. The peace of the grave will forever be denied. Growing old with a loved one cannot happen. Life will go on and on and on, until, inevitably, one is almost guaranteed to wish and hope and pray for some way to end it all. The ancient proverb states: "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it."

"Do you want to live forever?"

No one asked the Tuck family. In the early years of the 19th century, they came upon a small spring in the woods in upstate New York. Unbeknownst to them, it was the fountain of youth ?the water for which Ponce de Leon had so aggressively sought. Drinking froze all four Tucks at their current ages. The parents, Mae and Angus (Sissy Spacek and William Hurt), remained middle-aged but spry. Miles (Scott Bairstow) was trapped in the prime of his life. And Jesse (Jonathan Jackson) was fated to exist through eternity in a 17-year old body.

Nearly one-hundred years later, on the eve of the United States' entrance into the Great War, a teenage girl, Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel), stumbles upon the Tucks' house while running away from home. After living with the Tucks for a while, Winnie learns their secret. Meanwhile, she and Jesse fall in love. Then she must face a choice ?drink from the fountain and gain the promise of everlasting life and love with Jesse, or refuse and live for the normal span of human years. Circumstances present complications. Winnie's parents (Victor Garber and Amy Irving) are rich, and they are exerting their considerable influence to find her. And a mysterious Man in a Yellow Suit (Ben Kingsley) knows the Tucks' secret, and is intent upon exploiting it.

The romantic aspect of Tuck Everlasting, which is clearly the element that will attract pre-teen and teenage girls, is nicely developed, although it follows the familiar arc of the overprotected rich girl falling for the poor, freespirited boy (think Titanic). It's a pleasant, unforced love story ?one that sets up the characters so that the choices made have added weight. Immortality has more appeal when love is involved. Those enveloped in the pure magic of a motion picture love affair wish that things could last forever. And there's an innocence to the romance that is rarely found in movies today. Long stares and kisses do not automatically lead to .

For younger viewers, the immortality question probably won't mean much, but, for those who have lived long enough, it represents the film's true strength. We know from early in the proceedings that Winnie will have to choose ?and it won't be an easy choice. She is presented with both sides of the issue ?Jesse revels in the possibility of spending his unending life with a woman he loves while Angus cautions her that the Tucks don't really live anymore ?they're like rocks near the side of the river watching the water stream by. Then there's Miles, whose tragic past has left him longing for the death he can never have. Adult viewers probably won't mind the love story ?it's sweet (although not cloyingly so) and inoffensive ?but they will revel in the film's substantive philosophical underpinnings.

The film's star is 19-year old Alexis Bledel, who is taking a break from her TV series, "The Gilmore Girls". Bledel gives a wonderfully nuanced performance (she reminded me of Christina Ricci a few years ago), successfully conveying the uncertainty that rests upon Winnie's shoulders as she is forced to make her choice. Bledel also imbues Winnie with a spunk and charisma ?she's a tomboy at heart who has too long been imprisoned in a gilded cage. Jonathan Jackson, late of the soap opera "General Hospital", doesn't display great acting chops, but he's the kind of hunk (especially bare-chested) that young girls will swoon over. Sissy Spacek and William Hurt deliver solid support, and Ben Kingsley is wonderfully menacing as the film's mysterious stranger.

The movie, directed by Jay Russell (My Dog Skip), is based on a novel by Natalie Babbitt. It was also made into a 1980 film with a largely unknown cast. Not having read the book or seen the earlier movie, I can't comment on how closely this feature follows its source material or the earlier incarnation. However, viewed on its own terms, this is a gently engaging and thought-provoking motion picture. Tuck Everlasting is suitable for children (no profanity, no nudity, no , only a little violence), but the material is designed more for those with longer attention spans. Tuck Everlasting is at least as mature as movies like The Secret Garden and Fairytale: A True Story. The cartoonish buffoonery and mindless action of many family films is entirely absent. Disney's live-action division has a history of releasing cinematic flotsam, but this is one occasion when they have unearthed a rare gem.