Marshall Fine's "Hemlock Lane"

Minneapolis native Marshall Fine’s career as an award-winning journalist, critic, and filmmaker has spanned fifty years. Before his bestselling 2024 fiction debut, The Autumn of Ruth Winters, Fine wrote biographies of filmmakers John Cassavetes and Sam Peckinpah, directed documentaries about film critic Rex Reed and comedian Robert Klein, conducted the Playboy interview with Howard Stern, and chaired the New York Film Critics Circle four times.

Here Fine dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Hemlock Lane:

Hemlock Lane is a family drama that takes place over the course of four days, with each day told from the viewpoint of one of the four central characters—the perfect structure for a limited series on a streaming service, in case you’re a producer seeking a project.

The story is about a flashpoint weekend in the life of a suburban family in the summer of 1967. Secrets are both kept and revealed, building to a family showdown between a domineering mother and an independent- minded daughter, who is about to start a professional life that will put her beyond her mother’s reach.

The mother, Lillian—haughty, sharp-tongued, full of secret fears—would be perfect for an actress who can shift from warm to glacial with barely a movement of her eyebrow. I’d love to see someone like Cate Blanchett or Patricia Clarkson, actresses who combine steeliness with vulnerability.

The father, Sol, is a successful businessman whose secret shame is his inability to stand up to his wife to defend his daughters from her withering abuse. I see him as a likable, salt-of-the-earth type whose bluff good nature hides his fear of his spouse. Someone like Paul Giamatti or David Harbour would be perfect.

The daughter, Nora, is a blossoming second-wave feminist, fresh out of graduate school, who has always resisted her mother’s authority without openly defying it—until now. Her lively wit and sharp intellect would be perfect for an actress like Margaret Qualley or Saoirse Ronan.

Clara, the family housekeeper, is the story’s wild card. She’s someone who has figured prominently in the life of each family member in different ways for more than 25 years—and she’s the one who sees them all clearly, while maintaining an emotional agenda of her own. I would love to see an actress like Sarah Paulson or Judy Greer disappear into that role.

And for director? That poet of emotional repression, Ang Lee. Who better to illuminate the undercurrents of fear and insecurity that lurk just beneath the surface of the action?

Visit Marshall Fine's website, and follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

My Book, The Movie: The Autumn of Ruth Winters.

Q&A with Marshall Fine.

The Page 69 Test: Hemlock Lane.

--Marshal Zeringue