Tennessee (film)
Encyclopedia
Tennessee is a 2008 American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

 drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...

 produced by Lee Daniels
Lee Daniels
Lee Louis Daniels is an American actor, film producer, and director. He produced Monster's Ball and directed the film Precious, which received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director; the film won two of the awards.-Early years:Daniels was born on Christmas Eve, 1959, in...

. V V S Films has acquired all Canadian rights for the movie, while the U.S. rights are owned by Lee Daniels Entertainment
Lee Daniels
Lee Louis Daniels is an American actor, film producer, and director. He produced Monster's Ball and directed the film Precious, which received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director; the film won two of the awards.-Early years:Daniels was born on Christmas Eve, 1959, in...

.

Vivendi Entertainment
Vivendi Entertainment
Vivendi Entertainment is an independent film, television, DVD and digital distribution company operating in the United States and Canada. It is also a distribution partner for independent content providers....

 has acquired all U.S. rights to Tennessee.

Plot

Two brothers, Ellis (Ethan Peck
Ethan Peck
Ethan Gregory Peck is an American actor. He is best known for his work in the ABC Family network television series 10 Things I Hate About You, where he portrayed Patrick Verona, a role originated by Heath Ledger in the movie of the same name...

) and Carter (Adam Rothenberg
Adam Rothenberg
Adam Rothenberg is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Rothenberg was born in Tenafly, New Jersey. He is of Jewish ancestry on his father's side and has six siblings.-Career:...

), embark on a journey from New Mexico to find their estranged father in the hopes of saving Ellis, who has been diagnosed with terminal leukemia. Along the way while in Texas, they meet Krystal (Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...

), an aspiring singer, who flees from her controlling husband, Frank (Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...

), to join them on their journey.

Cast

  • Ethan Peck
    Ethan Peck
    Ethan Gregory Peck is an American actor. He is best known for his work in the ABC Family network television series 10 Things I Hate About You, where he portrayed Patrick Verona, a role originated by Heath Ledger in the movie of the same name...

     as Ellis
  • Adam Rothenberg
    Adam Rothenberg
    Adam Rothenberg is an American film and television actor.-Early life:Rothenberg was born in Tenafly, New Jersey. He is of Jewish ancestry on his father's side and has six siblings.-Career:...

     as Carter
  • Mariah Carey
    Mariah Carey
    Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...

     as Krystal
  • Lance Reddick
    Lance Reddick
    Lance Reddick is an American theater, film and TV actor and musician born in Baltimore, Maryland. He starred in The Wire as Cedric Daniels, appeared in Oz as Detective Johnny Basil and appeared in the fourth and fifth seasons of Lost. He now has a prominent role in Fringe...

     as Frank
  • Michelle Harris
    Michelle Harris
    Michelle Leslie Harris is an American beauty pageant contestant, who was Miss Delaware 1995 and competed in the 75th Anniversary Miss America pageant, which was won by Shawntel Smith of Oklahoma...

     as Karen
  • Bill Sage
    Bill Sage
    William "Bill" Sage III is an American actor and alumnus of State University of New York at Purchase.- Filmography :* Simple Men ... as Dennis McCabe* Flirt ... as Bill...

     as Roy

Music

Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...

 co-wrote "Right to Dream
Right to Dream
"Right to Dream" is a song from the film Tennessee. It was written by Mariah Carey and released as a single in late 2008.-Background:Deconstructing her songwriting process, Carey explains: "It was a different experience from an album project. I was very close to the story and in particular my...

" with Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...

 and performed it with Nelson's harmonica player, Mickey Raphael
Mickey Raphael
Michael Siegfried "Mickey" Raphael is a professional harmonica player, best known for his work with Willie Nelson. He has recorded with Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Elton John, Mötley Crüe, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Chesney, U2 and Neil Young.Raphael's style is mostly second...

, for the movie's soundtrack. "It's not really country," says Nelson, "It's more Mariah."

In May 2010, Carey's cover of Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...

's "Help Me Make It Through the Night
Help Me Make It Through the Night
"Help Me Make It Through the Night" is a country music ballad composed by Kris Kristofferson and released on his 1970 album Kristofferson.Kristofferson said that he got the inspiration for the song from an Esquire magazine interview with Frank Sinatra...

," was leaked online. It was originally supposed to appear on the Tennessee soundtrack.

Release and reception

The premiere of Tennessee took place at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...

 on April 26, 2008. Tennessee was released to select theaters on June 5, 2009.

Box office

Playing in limited release, Tennessee has grossed $9,438 from 15 theaters for a per-screen average of $629 in its opening weekend. As of June 24, it grossed a total of $16,100.

Critical

Critical response was generally mixed, with Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

 calculating an average rating of 42% based on 8 reviews. Based on 21 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

, it had an average rating of 33% with an average score of 4.5/10. A Hollywood Reporter said that the pacing is off and that the movie meanders until it reaches its unexpectedly powerful conclusion. Most of the critics praised Mariah Carey's performance, describing it as "emotional" and "effective". The music behind the film, especially the Mariah Carey written song "Right To Dream" received acclaim as well, and was even considered by notable critics as a contender for an Academy Award.

DVD

The DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

, initially scheduled for release on September 1, 2009, has been pushed back to January 26, 2010 according to the film's official promotional site.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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