Sommersby

Like BREATHLESS, THREE MEN AND A BABY and COUSINS, SOMMERSBY is a Hollywood remake of a successful French film, this time THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE. With the setting switched from 16th-century France to post-civil war Tennessee, the story remains largely the same: a man returns home after an absence of several years to reclaim his wife and property, but is so changed as to arouse suspicions about his real identity.

As played by Richard Gere, Jack Sommersby seems transformed from a spoilt, mean-spirited landowner into a paragon of heroism and virtue. By day, he leads his wife (Jodie Foster) and tenants in an enlightened, profit-sharing scheme to bring prosperi...