After the American Civil War, Jack Sommersby (Richard Gere) returns to his wife (Jodie Foster) and son a changed man, after six years away. He is, says his wife, 'so much better it scares me'. But is he really Sommersby at all? All might be well, with Foster happy to love her greatly-improved husband, whether he be Jack or not. But, in films, there is always a spanner in the works. It duly arrives in the form of Orin (Bill Pullman), a flop-haired farmer embittered by the disablement of his foot, who figures that he smells a rat and that that rat is the 'new' Sommersby. Gere, Foster and director Jon Amiel only seem to be operating at seven-eighths throttle here and that's not quite enough to convince us of the validity of a resolution that doesn't hold up for reasons you couldn't go into without spoiling the story. But the writers must hope we won't question the options obviously open to Foster and Gere without taking the course they do. There are lots of good moments in Sommersby but, perhaps because it tries so hard to touch the heart, it doesn't quite succeed.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes