When high school music teacher Michael McCann discovers his wife is pregnant by his best friend, he divorces her and retreats into a life of solitude as a maker of finely crafted furniture in rural Virginia.

She proves to be somewhat difficult in her early years, but with the help of friend and local shopkeeper April Simon, Michael manages to raise her to be a bright, personable, precocious young woman, and the once sour, lonely man is transformed by her presence.

[1] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "warm and funny", stating: "there is a lot to like about [it...but] try as I might, I just couldn't accept this Victorian story in modern dress.

For A Simple Twist of Fate, Steve Martin not only wrote the screenplay... but also executive-produced the project, creating for himself a character that is about as different from his typical roles as can be imagined.

And if the exercise isn't precisely disastrous, it comes very close to it... Perhaps it's a stretch for a performer with such remarkable charisma to play someone who is without it... Martin does a skillful job of nullifying himself, and he does present a side of himself that has been glimpsed only briefly.

"[3] According to Variety, "The pairing of Steve Martin and 19th-century novelist George Eliot seems about as likely an artistic union as Oliver Stone adapting Louisa May Alcott.

"[4] Kevin Thomas, in the Los Angeles Times, gave Steve Martin and director Gillies MacKinnon credit for taking risks by updating the classic George Eliot novel.

He describes it as a "charming update of Silas Marner" that is well written, well played and has substance and a musical score that successfully bring 19th century literature into a moving and powerful modern-day film.