Carey as Rose Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett’s life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she’s pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer’s door. She needs their help, and although they can’t quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.

Directed by:	Shana Feste
Written by:	Shana Feste
Produced by:	Lynette Howell, Beau St. Clair
Genre:	Drama, Romance
Rate:	R
Running Time:	98 minutes
Release Date:	January 17, 2009 (Sundance) & April 2, 2010 (United States)
Budget:	$6,000,000
Box Office:	$335,976
Co-Stars:	Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Aaron Johnson, Johnny Simmons

Related Photos:

• Check our gallery for production stills, screencaptures and more

Trivia:

• Writer-director Shana Feste wrote the script over three months while working as a nanny in Southern California.

Character Quotes:

Rose: I knew this boy… who was really wonderful to me. The first time I saw him was in freshman English. He wore a baseball hat on the first day of school, and our teacher made him take it off and his hair was all pasted on top of his head, and he smiled at me while he tried to fix it. We watched each other after that. And I started to feel like I knew him. I looked at his yearbook picture so often I knew his face by heart. Our senior year I took piano, and he had soccer, so we would pass each other every day after school in the exact same spot. And it became something I looked forward to. So much so that I could tell you all the days that he was absent because those were the days I was disappointed. And sometimes he would look at me, sometimes he would turn away, and sometimes it would be so intense that we would start looking at each other from the very beginning of the steps. And then on the last day… he talked to me. And everything he said was exactly how I pictured it would be. And he felt the way he felt in my dreams and I thought everything was happening exactly the way it was supposed to. And I was the happiest I’ve ever been. Happy and scared all at the same time. And if he had signed my belly he would have written something comforting. I was in love with him. That’s why I’m keeping this baby. I was in love with him for four years. I barely knew him, but everything was exactly how I imagined it, everything was just how I pictured it. I had to keep this baby. I think he was the love of my life.

Rose: Do you have any party tricks?
Allen Brewer: Oof. I don’t know if it counts, but I never forget people’s numbers. Um… I tend to memorize numbers.
Rose: What are my numbers?
Allen Brewer: Well… you have 18 years. 216 months. 864 weeks. 5,920 days. 311,040 hours. You came to our doorstep on 8-14-2008 at 4:30 pm. Your due date is 2-12-2009. Which leaves 119 more days. 2,136 hours. 128,160 minutes. And you have two heartbeats.

Critical Reception:

“A meditation on loss by a writer-director whose honesty, sensitivity and intelligence more than mitigate the film’s histrionic qualities.”
Michael O’Sullivan (Washington Post)

“Though it sometimes feels more like a collection of scenes than a complete story, some moments are so raw and insightful that they feel like a punch to the heart.”
Claudia Puig (USA Today)

“The Greatest assembles a good cast in a clunky, shopworn story.”
Colin Covert (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

“Any good actor’s career involves a certain amount of toning-up of questionable material, adding dimensions where they’re barely suggested on the page. That’s what Mulligan is doing here.”
Michael Phillips (At the Movies)

“Unfortunately, though its heart is smack in the right place, The Greatest tends to play more like a collection of appropriate, well-acted scenes than as a fully satisfying narrative.”
Gary Goldstein (Los Angeles Times)

“A well-observed study of an affluent family’s grief and rebirth after a tragic accident.”
Todd McCarthy (Variety)

Awards & Nominations:

Nominated – 2010 Method Fest: Best Supporting Actress for Carey Mulligan
Nominated – 2009 Sundance Film Festival: Dramatic Grand Jury Prize

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