Sweet November

Pat O’Connor’s film brings Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron together a second time; they had already played opposite each other in The Devil’s Advocate in 1997. Anne V. Coates edited it, Edward Lachman shot it, Christopher Young scored it. San Francisco is genuinely used, but only a small part of it. Sara’s address is 298 Missouri Street on Potrero Hill, yet the apartment interiors were shot on a set built in a decommissioned aircraft hangar on Treasure Island. The garden scene was filmed behind Bloom’s Saloon and the coffee scene at Farley’s. The script is a loose adaptation of the 1968 film of the same name, written by Herman Raucher and led by Anthony Newley and Sandy Dennis. Sara’s illness is named on screen, non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It opened at number 4 with 11,015,226 dollars, and against a 40 million budget the worldwide total stopped at 65.8 million. Three Razzie nominations followed and none turned into an award. The worst actor nomination for Reeves was not for this film alone; it covered Hardball too. A good fit if you accept the rules of melodrama up front and do not find a relationship on a calendar artificial. Not for viewers uncomfortable with terminal illness as the engine of a romance; the film puts it at the centre of the last stretch.