The Young Girl and the Monsoon is a 1999 American comedy-drama film written, directed and produced by James Ryan. It stars Terry Kinney, Ellen Muth,Mili Avital, Diane Venora and Tim Guinee. The film was shown at AFI Fest in 1999 before receiving a US theatrical release in 2001. It won the Gold Medal, Jury Prize and Best Screenplay Award at the Wine Country Film Festival.

Plot Hank, a 39-year-old divorced photo-journalist in New York City, agrees to have his 13-year-old daughter, Constance, stay with him for several weeks. Hank has kept much of his personal life from her, including his relationship with Erin, a 26-year-old model. When Erin tells Hank that she wants to marry him and have children, he becomes overwhelmed by the prospect of starting another family and ends their relationship.

At the same time, Hank struggles with professional pressures and his increasingly difficult relationship with Constance, who questions how he can photograph war and human suffering without intervening. Their conflicts gradually force Hank to confront his failures as both a father and a partner. He eventually admits to Constance that some of his attentiveness towards her following his divorce was motivated by resentment toward his former wife, and later reconciles with Erin.

Cast The cast includes: Terry Kinney as Hank Ellen Muth as Constance Mili Avital as Erin Tim Guinee as Jack Diane Venora as Giovanna

Production The Young Girl and the Monsoon was adapted from James Ryan's play of the same name, which was first produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1997. After several producers approached him about optioning the play, Ryan decided to make the film himself. The story was partly inspired by the changes he observed in his own teenage daughter, and Ryan considered more than 400 young actresses before casting Ellen Muth as Constance.

Ryan raised approximately $800,000 to finance the film and shot many of its interior scenes in his two-bedroom apartment in Tribeca, Manhattan. Despite the limited budget, the cast rehearsed for three weeks before filming. After the film was shown at a festival in 1999, Ryan withdrew the original cut and substantially re-edited it before it continued on the film-festival circuit.

Release The film was screened at the AFI Film Festival in 1999. The revised version was shown at the 2000 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival and subsequently at the Avignon/New York Film Festival among others. The film was distributed in North America by Artistic License Films and opened in New York City on May 4, 2001. It was later broadcast on Showtime and released on DVD by Vanguard International Video.

Reception Critical response to The Young Girl and the Monsoon was mixed. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 48 out of 100 based on seven reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times praised Ellen Muth's performance and wrote that the film was strongest in her scenes with Terry Kinney. David Sterritt of The Christian Science Monitor similarly praised Kinney and Muth, describing their performances as the film's principal strength and calling the film one of the year's more engaging American independent productions.

Charles Taylor of Salon was more critical, describing the film as unfocused and lacking sufficient dramatic material. He nevertheless praised Muth's portrayal of Constance as authentic and found Kinney's later scenes among his strongest moments in the film.

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