win her pardon. They later find Matty at a boarding school in Georgia, where he immediately recognizes his mother. Cast Ashley Judd as Elizabeth "Libby" Parsons Tommy Lee Jones as Travis Lehman Bruce Greenwood as Nicholas "Nick" Parsons/Simon Ryder/Jonathan Devereaux Annabeth Gish as Angie Green/Angie Ryder Roma Maffia as Margaret Skolowski Jay Brazeau as Bobby Long Michael Gaston as Cutter Daniel Lapaine as Handsome Internet Expert Dave Hager as Jim Mangold Benjamin Weir as Matty Parsons – age 4 Spencer Treat Clark as Matty Parsons – age 11 Davenia McFadden as Evelyn Lake Betsy Brantley as Prosecutor Babz Chula as Ruby Production notes After Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan and Brooke Shields all declined the role, Jodie Foster was attached to star in the film as Libby Parsons and Bruce Beresford met with her several times about the script: She said to me once, when we were having... not an argument, we had different points of view over something, and she said, 'We'll have to do it my way, I'm afraid.' And I said, 'Why, Jodie?' And she said, 'Because I'm so intelligent. I'm such an intelligent person that there is no point in disagreeing with me because I'm always right.' I thought she was joking, but she wasn't! [laughs] She had this extraordinary opinion of her own IQ. Reception On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 28% based on 87 reviews and an average rating of 4.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "A talented cast fails to save this unremarkable thriller." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 40 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four, and said "This movie was made primarily in the hopes that it would gross millions and millions of dollars, which probably explains most of the things that are wrong with it." Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "slick entertainment". Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the film is a "well-acted diversion, directed by Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy) with an intelligent grasp of the moment-to-moment emotion". For her performance in the film Ashley Judd won Favorite Actress at the 6th Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. Accolades