Synopsis

After her husband leaves her for another woman, Judith Moore retreats into a lonely, carefully controlled life. A chance encounter with a nightclub singer inspires her to take emotional risks, while an unexpected connection with her apartment building's elevator operator offers companionship from an unlikely source. As Judith confronts her regrets and desires, she begins searching for an identity beyond marriage.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was inspired in part by two short stories by Anton Chekhov, using their focus on brief encounters and unresolved emotional lives as a foundation.

• It marked the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Richard LaGravenese, who had previously written films including *The Fisher King* and *The Bridges of Madison County*.

• The story is set in New York City, and filming took place in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, as well as Los Angeles.

• Queen Latifah performs several jazz and standards selections in the film, including "Lush Life," "Goin' Out of My Head," and "Be Anything (But Be Mine)." The soundtrack also includes music by Dean Martin, Etta James, and Sly and the Family Stone.

• Danny DeVito performs "They Can't Take That Away from Me" during the nightclub sequence.

• The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 15, 1998, before receiving a limited United States release on October 30, 1998.

• With a reported $20 million budget and approximately $15.6 million in worldwide theatrical grosses, the film did not recover its production cost during its initial theatrical run.

• Early television footage showing a destroyed apartment complex was reused news imagery from the 1992 El Al cargo plane crash in Amsterdam.