'Til There Was You is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Scott Winant and starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dylan McDermott, and Sarah Jessica Parker.
The screenplay, written by Winnie Holzman, traces thirty-odd years in the parallel lives of two people whose intertwined paths finally converge when their mutual interest in a community project brings them together.
Gwen Moss has spent the better part of her life waiting for the man of her dreams, unaware she briefly bumped into him at school as children and has had several close encounters ever since.
Gwen is hired to ghostwrite the autobiography of former child star Francesca Lanfield, whose career virtually ended following her stint on a long-running Partridge Family-Brady Bunch hybrid sitcom.
Architect Nick Dawkan's boss Timo wants to buy and demolish the complex so his firm can construct a modern condominium development in its place.
Both are damaged emotionally; Francesca has overcome an addiction to drugs but still craves the spotlight, while Nick is dealing with the memory of a father who failed as a songwriter and became a hopeless alcoholic.
Her parents' story of how they met in her childhood turns out to be false: Saul got stood up by his date that night and Beebee thought he was interested in her.
Gwen moves into La Fortuna and finds herself surrounded by an assortment of odd but lovable neighbors who have created a family of their own.
Having discovered the property was designed by Sophia Monroe, one of the first female architects of note (and coincidentally Nick's mentor during the early stages of his career), and served as home to silent film star Louise Brooks, Gwen hopes she can have it declared an historical landmark with the assistance of Jon Haas, the city councilman she is dating.
Director Scott Winant approved the duo, thinking the comical mastery of Goodman and the jazzy romance of Blanchard would make the perfect combination.
"[8] Roger Ebert, then of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film 1⁄2 star and called it "the most tiresome and affected movie in many a moon, a 114-minute demonstration of the Idiot Plot, in which everything could be solved with a few well-chosen words that are never spoken .
Landmarks are saved, hearts are mended, long-deferred love is realized, coincidences are explained, the past is healed, the future is assured, the movie is over.
First-time screenwriter Winnie Holzman may have been aware of the lameness of her central premise because she has loaded the movie with a dizzying number of subplots .
"[11] Leonard Klady of Variety stated, "A tired piece of romantic cornball fare that harks back to a bygone era, the film is a badly conceived, poorly executed fairy tale guaranteed to make audiences squirm in their seats .