Three Wishes (film)

Three Wishes
Directed by Martha Coolidge
Produced by Patrick Green
Gary Lucchesi
Written by Patrick Green
Elizabeth Anderson
Starring
Music by Cynthia Millar
Cinematography Johnny E. Jensen
Edited by Steven Cohen
Production
company
Distributed by Savoy Pictures
Release date
  • October 27, 1995 (1995-10-27)
Running time
 115 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million
Box office $7,025,496

Three Wishes is a 1995 American drama-fantasy film directed by Martha Coolidge and starring Patrick Swayze, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Joseph Mazzello.

Plot

In the present, a family man is driving in his car with his wife and two daughters and almost runs into a man. The vision of the man causes the driver to flashback to a similar incident in his childhood.

In 1955, Jane Holman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) is driving with her two sons, 11-year old Tom (Joseph Mazzello) and 5-year old Gunny (Seth Mumy) when she accidentally runs into a drifter named Jack McCloud (Patrick Swayze), breaking his leg. Feeling sorry for him, Jane invites Jack and his female dog Betty Jane to stay at her home until his leg has healed. After some initial difficulties in adapting to this new lifestyle, Jack soon finds himself loved by the family, who all want him to stay. Jack starts teaching baseball to Tom, who deeply misses his father, a soldier who went missing in action during the Korean War, and the two of them develop a strong bond. Meanwhile, Gunny believes that there is more to Jack and Betty Jane than meets the eye, and he is determined to find out what.

Gunny soon finds out Betty Jane is a genie, not merely a dog. Meanwhile Jack's bond with the family gets closer and closer, and Tom comes to see Jack as a surrogate father. At the same time, Jane's neighbor Phil (David Marshall Grant) recognizes Jack as a former famous baseball player, who disappeared years ago during Second World War. Jack denies it. Phil sees Jack as a threat, a potential rival for the affections of Jane. Tom too comes to reject Jack after Jack decides to move away when he is healed, leaving Tom to feel himself abandoned by a father a second time. Jane also feels sad with Jack's decision but admits the impossibility of staying with Jack. After Jack says goodbye to Tom, Tom flees on his bike to a nearby hill. Suddenly, Tom changes his mind and heads back to the highway to find Jack getting into a truck before Tom can reach him.

On the 4th of July Party, the titular wishes are being fulfilled. Gunny realizes his wish to fly in the middle of the fireworks, unseen by the public congregated in the park. Tom's wish is fulfilled when his long-lost father is discovered alive, and he returns home after being freed from his imprisonment by the People's Republic of China.

Back to present day, driver is revealed to be an adult Tom, who gets out of the car and enters a cemetery close to the place where he almost ran the man down. Tom meets Jack again. He talks with Jack briefly, discovering that Jack's real wish wasn't that Tom's father would come back home, but that Tom would be happy with the family he had. Afterwards, Jack disappears, and a renewed Tom holds his wife close. Meanwhile, the camera focuses on a tomb with a headstone that reveals that Jack McCloud died on August 6, 1944, in the Normandy landings.

Cast

Reception

Three Wishes was poorly received by critics, as the film holds a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

References

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