I saw this film on a flight to Australia. I'd never heard of it but it would pass some time. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It has a Forest Gump kind of charm but a lot less humour. It also reminded me of the early soap operas like Peyton Place in the way it portrayed 1950's America. The unfolding of the family story is well spun out so that you only gradually come to appreciate the tensions involved and indeed some of the scenes are only understood after later revelations show up a new significance. The characters were believable and the twist in the tale of the story sufficiently unexpected but predictable in retrospect that you kick yourself for not realising. A family film with little to worry the censor other than some mild fisticuffs and a small amount of what might have been referred to in the film as "fooling around". The interplay between the leading roles is exceptional, both between the two brothers and between Liv Tyler and Joaquin Phoenix.

Helen Holt (Kathy Baker) is a suffered low middle-class widow, head of the Holt family, living in a small town in Illinois in 1957, with her two very different sons (Joaquin Phoenix and Billy Crudup). Lloyd Abbot (Will Patton) is a wealthy man, head of the Abbott family, with three gorgeous daughters (Jennifer Connelly, Liv Tyler and Joanna Going – can you imagine such beautiful daughters together?). The drama related to the formation of the wealthy of the Abbots through a patent of the Holt father, the rumors of the romance of Helen Holt and Lloyd Abbot in the past and the romance between the two Holt teenagers and the three Abbott daughters against Lloyd Abbott will, all of these ingredients in the plot of 'Inventing the Abbotts' could lead to a Mexican soap opera. However, the direction of Pat O'Coonor, supported by a great cast, presents a beautiful and touching movie. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Círculo de Paixões" ("Circle of Passions")