Screen Two - Ethan Frome (1993)

A new pastor arrives in a stark Vermont village and becomes intrigued by a crippled man called Ethan Frome who lives on an isolated farm with his wife Zeena and is seemingly shunned by the community. Puzzled as to why, he asks one of the parishioners and eventually learns his history, of how Ethan married his cousin Zeena Pierce, who proved a "sickly wife" and who in a tragic twist of fate invited her cousin Mattie Silver over to help out at the farm, only for Ethan and Mattie to gradually fall in love, and the tragedy that followed... Starring Liam Neeson, Joan Allen, Patricia Arquette, Tate Donovan, Katherine Houghton, Stephen Mendillo, Phil Garran, Virginia Smith, Annie Nessan, Burt Porter, George Woodard, Jay Goede, Debbon Ayer, Rob Campbell, Louise De Cormier, Edsel Hughes, Dennis Mienter and Patty Smith among the cast. This was a Screen Two drama that was originally broadcast on TV on March 5th 1993 and was an adaptation of Edith Wharton's 1911 novel. We had on a recording for a number of years, but sadly it disappeared. Instead you have member Zack Smith to thank for this, having found it for me. It's a wintry, haunting tale that will stay with you, with lovely performances by both Liam Neeson and Patricia Arquette, while Joan Allen has the unenviable role as the illness inflicted Zeena (or is she?). A wintry tale for Christmas, with a haunting twist in the tale.