The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (film)
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer | |
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Greengrass Productions Mark Carliner Productions Victor Television Productions | |
Original release | |
Network | ABC |
Release | May 12, 2003 |
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer is a 2003 American television film directed by Craig R. Baxley, and starring Lisa Brenner, Steven Brand, and Tsidii Le Loka. It is a prequel to the miniseries Rose Red (2002), and is based on the 2001 novel by Ridley Pearson, which itself is an accompaniment piece to the miniseries.
Plot
The miniseries is an adaptation of The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red (2001), written by Ridley Pearson under the pseudonym Joyce Reardon, PhD. Pearson's novel was based on the script of Stephen King's Rose Red.
The plot revolves around the construction of the Rimbauer mansion, Rose Red, in
Shortly after her marriage to Rimbauer, Ellen begins keeping a diary in which she confesses her anxieties about her new marriage, expresses her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and contemplates the nightmare that her life is becoming. Ellen soon has two children which helps soothe her painful relationship with her husband. First, a boy named Adam, and then a girl (born with a deformed withered arm) named April. At first impressed by her husband's extravagance, Ellen eventually hates and fears John, especially when learning unsavory facts about his past. Meanwhile, the number of individual hauntings in the mansion increases, possibly including ghosts of the many people close to John who have mysteriously vanished. Ellen interprets the eerie manifestations as a warning that she, too, may some day disappear without a trace.
Years after her young daughter April also vanishes inside the estate, Ellen and her maid and confidant Sukeena still continue to live in the house. After John's death, Ellen believes that if she continues to build the house, she will never die. She uses nearly all of her inherited fortune to continually add to the home over the next several decades, enlarging it significantly. Rose Red begins growing by itself, adding new hallways, new corridors, new rooms and new staircases seemingly overnight. But mysterious disappearances continue: Deanna Petrie, a famous actress friend of Ellen's, and Sukeena both disappear over the next few years. Ellen herself disappears in 1950, never to be seen again.
Cast
- Lisa Brenner as Ellen Gilchrist-Rimbauer
- Steven Brand as John Rimbauer
- Tsidii Le Loka as Sukeena
- Kate Burton as Connie Posey
- Brad Greenquist as Douglas "Doug" Posey
- Deirdre Quinn as Fanny
- Tsai Chin as Madame Lu
- Hans Altwies as Daniel
- Courtney Taylor Burness as April Rimbauer
- Jacob Pearce Guzman as Adam Rimbauer
- Eric Keenleyside as Jack Finney
Release
Television airing
The film premiered during
Critical response
Michael Speier of
Home media
The film was released on DVD by Lionsgate on October 14, 2003.[4]
References
- ^ a b Speier, Michael (May 8, 2003). "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer". Variety. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018.
- ^ Lowry, Brian (May 21, 2003). "Sweeps has ABC on ropes". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
- ^ Wertheimer, Ron (May 12, 2003). "TELEVISION REVIEW; Big House With a Short Fuse". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
- ^ Sinnott, John (December 29, 2003). "The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer DVD". DVD Talk. Archived from the original on October 16, 2018. Retrieved October 16, 2018.
External links
- The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer at IMDb