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  • Last First Time (The)
  • Sylvia Robyn
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  • Lilies Not for Me
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  • Compatriots (The)

Substance of Fire (The)

Country: USA, Language: English, 97 mins

  • Director: Daniel J. Sullivan
  • Writer: Jon Robin Baitz
  • Producer: Jon Robin Baitz; Randy Finch

CGiii Comment

Well, that was a major disappointment - where was the fire???

History, tradition, family...legacy - all these major themes are swept under the carpet and what remains is rather threadbare...rug.

A gay son usurps his father, splitting a family and their unstable loyalties...an intended tearjerker with neither tears nor jerks.

A film that sadly lacks all the elements that it was supposed to have.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Isaac Geldhart is a Holocaust survivor who, overcome by grief at the recent death of his wife, seems determined to run his publishing firm into the ground by printing books that have no hope of financial success. His son Aaron, who also works at the company, grows frustrated with Isaac's emotional decline and attempts to take over the firm. The resulting crisis involves Isaac's other two children, his daughter Sarah and his dying son Martin.

Cast & Characters

Tony Goldwyn as Aaron Geldhart;
Benjamin Ungar as Young Isaac Geldhart;
Timothy Hutton as Martin Geldhart;
Tom McDermott as Old Printer;
Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah Geldhart;
George Morfogen as Otto the printer;
Ron Rifkin as Isaac Geldhart;
Lee Grant as Cora Cahn;
Andrew Pang as Mr. Otani jr;
Edmund Ikeda as Mr. Otani sr;
Elizabeth Franz as Miss Barzakian;
Gil Bellows as Val Chenard;
Eric Bogosian as Gene Byck;
Ronny Graham as Louis Foukold;
John Sullivan as Stewart