Tuck Everlasting is not the type of movie that Disney generally tends to churn out. Everything moves slowly, deep in the woods (a Shire of sorts) where a family of two boys and two parents the Tucks go about their turn of the century farm lives at a strangely slow pace. It's as if it doesn't matter whether or not they get the crops harvested in time at all. This is a family that clearly loves one another but their emotions are muted and strange, but I had no Idea why. How can this be a Disney film? There's no action, no cartoons, no cheap gags - the kids are not going to stay glued to the set once this comes out on video.

Actually I went into this one not knowing anything about the beloved Natalie Bobbitt novel or the story or anything - which is odd because I've read every other book ever written and authored hundreds myself. And it was the fact that I didn't know anything about the secretive and strange nature of the Tucks that made the revelation all the more effective for me. So I will offer no spoiler whatsoever - if you want to find out what makes the Tuck's different from other people you're going to find out from someone other than me.

The Cast is strong. Father Tuck is played by a man who, for a period of 5 or so years, I would have called my favorite actor. William Hurt (The Big Chill, The Accidental Tourist, The Doctor - who's with me on this one?) Sissy Spacek portrays his wife and turns in a lovely gentle performance as the mother of two boys played in order of age by Scott Bairstow, and Jonathan Jackson. We first learn that the family is unusual and constantly on their guard from strangers when the elder brother reports that he's seen the man again. The man who's been following him. The follower is portrayed by Ben Kingsley, who is more or less wasted in a role this small, but is as solid as ever.

Nearby in a town not so far from the Tuck's shire resides a family of privilege, whose only daughter is a bit of a tomboy and has a rebellious nature, be it a mild turn-of-the-century kind of rebellion. Alexis Bledel plays this reckless 16 year old glowing beauty whose rebellion takes the form of wandering off into the woods a bit further than she ever has before and into the very mystery that lies at the heart of the Shire.

As the trailers do give away Bledel and Jackson encounter one another and over the course of a period of time that has no measure fall deeply in love. When his older brother discovers their forbidden tryst, there is a huge argument that ends in the older brother snatching the young trespasser and taking her on horseback to their home where they must all decide what to do about her. For young Jackson was so smitten that he confessed the family secret. Though the Tucks mean her no harm, they can't exactly just let her go without absolute certainty that she will not breathe a word.

As her frantic parents played by (Irving and Victor Garber) search for their daughter, missing now for some time, Kingsley comes to them with a proposition. The parents of the missing girl happen to own the Shire and Kinglsey offers to restore their daughter to them safely in exchange for the deed to the shire. Suffice to say that Kingsley is unsuccessful in his bid to capture the shire and the magic that it contains and the young girl (still very much in love with Jackson) must make a choice, a choice that is the philosophical point of the film, and one I will leave to you, because I recommend this film.