Stars Kim Basinger and Bruce Greenwood as Jessie and Hugh Sullivan

(2006 made-for-cable movie)

Kim Basinger stars as Jessie Sullivan in this faithful adaptation of 2005's best selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd about a woman facing a mid-life crisis. Bruce Greenwood co-stars as her attractively perfect husband Hugh, a nurturing psychiatrist with whom she's had a seemingly ideal marriage. When their only daughter leaves for college, Jessie becomes restless, and on a visit to her unstable mother she finds herself re-examining her life's decisions and becoming obsessed with a Benedictine monk, played by Alex Carter.

Emmy-winning director Steven Schachter helmed the film from a script by Suzette Couture based on the novel by Sue Monk Kidd. The film aired three times on Lifetime over the weekend of September 9, 2006. Hopefully a published DVD version of the film will erase the ads that flicker onto the screen throughout and will also provide complete credits.

The mermaids serve as an allegory for Jessie's search for independence, and the mermaid's chair becomes a tangible symbol of what went wrong in her young life. Hugh is caught in the middle of her confusion and must deal with the pain of both her rejection and infidelity. It's a wonderfully appropriate role for Bruce Greenwood.