Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael

Infobox_Film
name = Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
caption = Roxy Carmichael theatrical poster
director = Jim Abrahams
producer = Penney Finkelman Cox
writer = Karen Leigh Hopkins
starring = Winona Ryder
Jeff Daniels
music = Melissa Etheridge
Thomas Newman
cinematography = Paul Elliott
editing = Bruce Green
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = October 12,1990
runtime = 95 minutes
language = English
budget =
imdb_id = 0100911

"Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael" is a 1990 US movie starring Winona Ryder and Jeff Daniels. Pictures of this film were featured in the 1994 World Book.

Plot

The film's main character is a fifteen-year-old girl named Dinky Bossetti (Ryder). Dinky was adopted as a baby. She appears to have little acceptance in her social circle, although it is not obvious which came first - her antisocial attitude or her being rejected by her peers. Her adopted mother is disappointed that the daughter she chose has no interest in "feminine" activities, such as makeup and nice clothing. Her classmates ostracise, taunt and throw things at her regularly. Dinky finds solace in her "Ark", a small cabin-boat beached on a lake shore. In and around the boat Dinky has collected a menagerie of abandoned animals.

As the story begins, Dinky is befriended by a new school guidance counselor, who recognizes her intelligence and spirit. Dinky becomes convinced that she is the abandoned daughter of Roxy Carmichael, a minor movie star who left town for Hollywood fifteen years ago after giving birth to a baby girl out of wedlock. Miss Carmichael has been invited to return to town to assist in the dedication of a new municipal building, and she has accepted. The news of her return stirs up old jealousies and insecurities: old schoolmates start acting in irrational ways, while Denton Webb (Jeff Daniels), the husband she abandoned when she left town, becomes so obsessed by the idea of her return that his wife moves out. As the date for Roxy's return draws nearer, Dinky becomes more and more desperate to prove that she is Roxy's daughter, visiting the star's childhood home (which is still maintained as a museum), and obsessively questioning Denton about what happened the night she left, believing that Roxy will take her away to a new life. On the day that Roxy is due to arrive, Dinky packs her suitcase and arrives at the welcoming ceremony in a beautiful dress. A long pink limousine draws up, but a man gets out with a note of explanation: Roxy has not come back. As the limousine drives away, Dinky runs after it, but is soon left behind. Denton catches up with her and tells her the whole story (when he realizes the reason for Dinky's obsession with Roxy): although Roxy did have a baby, and did leave it with him, the baby died. Roxy is not Dinky's mother. Left with nothing, Dinky is rescued by Gerald Howells, a popular boy who has become increasingly interested in her. At first, Dinky is suspicious of his interest, but the end of the film shows them together in a relationship where she finally holds the upper hand as things return to normal in the town.

Roxy Carmichael is never fully shown in the movie. We do learn that she once dated a musician who wrote a song about her which became a nationwide hit. He gave the air rights to Roxy, so she "gets paid every time the song is played" on the radio; this is apparently the source of her considerable wealth.

In the movie, the town is called Clyde, Ohio, a real town in Ohio, but the movie was filmed in Sandusky, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie.

Featured cast

External links

*imdb title|id= 0100911 |title=Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael