Inventing the Abbotts is a 1997 American period coming-of-age film directed by Pat O'Connor, and starring Liv Tyler, Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Crudup, Jennifer Connelly and Joanna Going.

Their father Charlie was a reckless risk-taker who lost his life when J.C. was two years old and Doug wasn't even born, after driving on a frozen lake over a bet made with Lloyd Abbott.

Amidst the complicated dynamics brought about by their siblings, Doug and Pamela meet again by chance while attending college at Penn and Bryn Mawr, respectively.

When Doug and J.C. come back home for their mother's funeral, they find the document confirming their late father had sold his patent for the very car he drove to his death on the lake.

Though the film is set in rural Illinois, it was mostly shot in the region of Northern California, including the areas of Healdsburg, Petaluma, and Santa Rosa.

[5] Janet Maslin of the New York Times said of the young cast: “[Joaquin] Phoenix, so memorably mixed up and inarticulate in "To Die For," steps solidly into the assertive role of this film's narrator.