Moviepedia

Recently, we've done several changes to help out this wiki, from deleting empty pages, improving the navigation, adding a rules page, as well as merging film infoboxes.

You can check out the latest overhauls that we have done on this wiki so far, as well as upcoming updates in our announcement post here.

READ MORE

Moviepedia
Advertisement

To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday is a 1996 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Pressman and starring Peter Gallagher and Claire Danes as a father and daughter struggling to come to terms with the tragic death of wife and mother, Gillian (Michelle Pfeiffer). The original score was composed by James Horner.

The screenplay was adapted by David E. Kelley from the play of the same name by Michael Brady.

Plot[]

David Lewis (Peter Gallagher) is so affected by the death of his beautiful wife, Gillian (Michelle Pfeiffer), who fell from the mast of their yacht on a sailing trip, that he turns their summer cottage in Nantucket, Massachusetts into a permanent home and spends most of his time on the beach there, communicating with Gillian's spirit and unwittingly neglecting his daughter, Rachel (Claire Danes).

On the second anniversary of Gillian's death, David invites her sister, Esther Wheeler (Kathy Baker), and Esther's husband, Paul (Bruce Altman), to stay for the weekend. She insists on bringing a friend named Kevin Dollof (Wendy Crewson) who she hopes David will become romantically interested in. He, however, ignores her in proceeding with a ritualistic celebration of Gillian's birthday.

The events of the weekend cause the adults to re-examine their relationships; Esther and Paul have to deal with the problem posed to their marriage by Rachel's provocative friend, Cindy (Laurie Fortier), while David comes to realize that he can be a loving and attentive father to Rachel without betraying the memory of Gillian.

Cast[]

Production[]

The film was filmed on location in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and in and around Wilmington, North Carolina, although some of the beach scenes were filmed at Long Beach, California, and the sailing accident was filmed at Marina del Rey, California; the obvious differences between the two were noticeable enough to be mentioned by The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin.

Advertisement