Rating: PG
Genre:
Comedy Drama
Release Date: 07/26/2005
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD2
Run Time: 89 Minutes
Distributor/Studio: Paramount
The third TV movie produced for the
TNT network's "Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentations,"
Wilder Days stars
Peter Falk as septuagenarian
James "Pop-Up" Morse, who, though warm and indulgent toward his 11-year-old grandson
Chris (
Josh Hutcherson), has always been a bit aloof and distant when it comes to his own son (and
Chris' father)
John (
Timothy Daly). As a result,
John has become a bitter, uptight, super-pragmatic adult, rigidly rejecting the colorful tall tales that
Pop-Up enjoys spinning for
Chris. Not wishing to have
Chris' imagination stunted by
John, and also hoping to make up for neglecting his son,
Pop-Up decides to prove that his fanciful stories are factual, beginning with his oft-told yarn of the wreck of the circus boat Wilder Days. To this end, the elder Morse "escapes" from his nursing home and takes
Chris on a journey of rediscovery across country in his classic 1959 El Dorado -- without the fuming
John's permission. Directed by
David Mickey Evans of
Radio Flyer and
The Sandlot fame,
Wilder Days premiered October 19, 2003.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide