Falling for Grace
Encyclopedia
Falling for Grace is a 2006 romantic comedy film
directed by Asian-American Fay Ann Lee, who also co-wrote the film with Karen Rousso, and stars alongside Gale Harold
. It debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival
(as East Broadway). New York magazine called the film one of the two best entries in the "New York, New York" competition that year.
investment banker raised in New York’s Chinatown
. Though she has achieved financial success and stability as a mergers and acquisitions
associate, Grace still yearns for social acceptance among the Upper East Side
elite. When she is finally invited to her first high-end soiree, a Junior Committee meet-and-greet for a prestigious opera company, she is accidentally mistaken for an heiress from Hong Kong
, also named Grace Tang. Her efforts to correct the mistake lose some of their forcefulness when she is subsequently introduced to handsome Andrew James Barrington, Jr. (Gale Harold
), who is dating committee-member Kay Douglas (Stephanie March
).
From a chance meeting in the street to dinner at a Chinese restaurant
, the two begin to see more of each other, and Grace’s personal, professional, and family interests become increasingly entangled and conflicting. Andrew, the son of a prominent attorney (Roger Rees
), works in the New York State Attorney General
's office in Manhattan
, and has been passionately pursuing a case against a network of Chinatown sweatshops — in one of which Grace's mother works. Grace, unable to extricate herself gracefully from what she saw initially as an innocuous white lie, finds herself pretending that her parents are an old couple whom she visits as a volunteer. Meanwhile, Andrew Sr. is helping to shepherd a fashion-company buyout at Grace's bank, with a company that exploits sweatshop works. Grace finds herself secretly caught in the middle
When her brother Ming (Ken Leung
) inadvertently reveals the truth to Andrew, Andrew leaves the budding romance, of which Kay is unaware. With Grace's help, however, Andrew gets documents that prove the fashion company's sweatshop connection, which causes the company's and his father's downfalls. Andrew leaves Kay to move to Hong Kong
, where Grace has a new position with her company.
, East Broadway, by Fay Ann Lee, was a quarterfinalist for the 2003 Nicholl Fellowships (given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
), a semi-finalist at the Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project (run by Paramount Pictures
), and a finalist at the Asian American International Film Festival’s Screenwriting Competition.
(as East Broadway). It has also screened at the following festivals: in 2007, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival
, and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award; in 2008, the Phoenix Film Festival
; and in 2009, the Reel Film Festival for Women in Los Angeles
, where it won Best Dramatic Feature, and the Delray Beach Film Festival
, where it won the Best Feature Film Audience Award.
(for a star like Jennifer Lopez
). Lee opted not to make the change, and decided instead to get it produced herself, raising the production budget
over the course of 4 years.
The film had its world premiere
at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It was not picked up by a distributor
. Filmmaker Lee said distributors told her a mainstream audience would not pay to see an Asian American
protagonist in an American romantic comedy.
Lee release the film herself in cities outside New York and Los Angeles
She began by four-walling at the Sundance/Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco. There, Falling for Grace averaged over $5,000 per screen for three weeks. Michael Coppola, owner of the Fleur Cinema in Des Moines, Iowa
, saw the film with his wife at the Camelview 5, Harkins Theatres
in Scottsdale
, Arizona
. "The minute I left the movie," said Coppola, "I looked at my wife and said, this is the movie I have to get." Falling for Grace opened at the Fleur Cinema in August 2008.
Falling for Grace has been released commercially in California, in San Francisco, Sausalito
, Grass Valley
, Grass Valley
, Berkeley
, Palm Springs
, and San Diego; in Des Moines
; in Washington, D.C.
; in Lakeside
and Scottsdale, Arizona
; and in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The film was made available on Netflix
in 2011
) and others to tour the movie as a sneak preview in nine theaters in Austria and one in Germany.
She has been invited to speak at Yale
, Johns Hopkins
, Stanford, UC Berkeley
, James Madison
, Boston University
, Columbia
, Temple
, UMass - Amherst
, Arizona State University
, Harvard, the Wharton School of Business
(Lee's alma mater
), and Tsinghua University
in Beijing
, China.
After Lee screened the film and spoke at Harvard University, she was invited to act as an official Harvard Guest Speaker at the 2010 Young Leader's Conference in Beijing.
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
directed by Asian-American Fay Ann Lee, who also co-wrote the film with Karen Rousso, and stars alongside Gale Harold
Gale Harold
Gale Morgan Harold III is an American actor widely known for his roles on Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.-Early life:...
. It debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
(as East Broadway). New York magazine called the film one of the two best entries in the "New York, New York" competition that year.
Plot synopsis
Grace Tang (Fay Ann Lee) is an ambitious Wall StreetWall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
investment banker raised in New York’s Chinatown
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
. Though she has achieved financial success and stability as a mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions refers to the aspect of corporate strategy, corporate finance and management dealing with the buying, selling, dividing and combining of different companies and similar entities that can help an enterprise grow rapidly in its sector or location of origin, or a new field or...
associate, Grace still yearns for social acceptance among the Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
elite. When she is finally invited to her first high-end soiree, a Junior Committee meet-and-greet for a prestigious opera company, she is accidentally mistaken for an heiress from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, also named Grace Tang. Her efforts to correct the mistake lose some of their forcefulness when she is subsequently introduced to handsome Andrew James Barrington, Jr. (Gale Harold
Gale Harold
Gale Morgan Harold III is an American actor widely known for his roles on Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.-Early life:...
), who is dating committee-member Kay Douglas (Stephanie March
Stephanie March
Stephanie Caroline March is an American actress, best known for her current portrayal of Alexandra Cabot on the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.-Early life:...
).
From a chance meeting in the street to dinner at a Chinese restaurant
Chinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
, the two begin to see more of each other, and Grace’s personal, professional, and family interests become increasingly entangled and conflicting. Andrew, the son of a prominent attorney (Roger Rees
Roger Rees
Roger Rees is a Welsh actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord on the American television sitcom show Cheers and Lord John Marbury on the American television drama The West Wing...
), works in the New York State Attorney General
New York State Attorney General
The New York State Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of New York. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government of New York.The current Attorney General is Eric Schneiderman...
's office in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, and has been passionately pursuing a case against a network of Chinatown sweatshops — in one of which Grace's mother works. Grace, unable to extricate herself gracefully from what she saw initially as an innocuous white lie, finds herself pretending that her parents are an old couple whom she visits as a volunteer. Meanwhile, Andrew Sr. is helping to shepherd a fashion-company buyout at Grace's bank, with a company that exploits sweatshop works. Grace finds herself secretly caught in the middle
When her brother Ming (Ken Leung
Ken Leung
Kenneth "Ken" Leung is an American actor best known for his role as Miles Straume in the ABC television series Lost and roles in such films as Shanghai Kiss, Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Saw.-Early life:...
) inadvertently reveals the truth to Andrew, Andrew leaves the budding romance, of which Kay is unaware. With Grace's help, however, Andrew gets documents that prove the fashion company's sweatshop connection, which causes the company's and his father's downfalls. Andrew leaves Kay to move to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, where Grace has a new position with her company.
Cast
- Fay Ann Lee as Grace Tang
- Gale HaroldGale HaroldGale Morgan Harold III is an American actor widely known for his roles on Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and Hellcats.-Early life:...
as Andrew Barrington, Jr. - Margaret ChoMargaret ChoMargaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
as Janie Wong - Christine BaranskiChristine BaranskiChristine Jane Baranski is an American stage and screen actress, and is perhaps best known for her Emmy Award winning portrayal as "Maryanne Thorpe" in the sitcom Cybill, and her Emmy nominated portrayal of "Diane Lockhart" in The Good Wife...
as Bree Barrington - Roger ReesRoger ReesRoger Rees is a Welsh actor. He is best known to American audiences for playing the characters Robin Colcord on the American television sitcom show Cheers and Lord John Marbury on the American television drama The West Wing...
as Andrew Barrington, Sr. - Ken LeungKen LeungKenneth "Ken" Leung is an American actor best known for his role as Miles Straume in the ABC television series Lost and roles in such films as Shanghai Kiss, Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Saw.-Early life:...
as Ming Tang - Clem Cheung as Ba
- Elizabeth SungElizabeth SungElizabeth Fong Sung is an Asian American actress and film director.From 1994-96, she appeared on the American soap opera The Young and the Restless as Luan Volien....
as Ma - Ato EssandohAto EssandohAto Essandoh is an American television and film actor.Essandoh, who was born in Schenectady, New York, graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1990. He received a BA in chemical engineering from the Cornell University. He is also a playwright, and authored Black Thang which is published in the ...
as Jamal Taylor - Stephanie MarchStephanie MarchStephanie Caroline March is an American actress, best known for her current portrayal of Alexandra Cabot on the television series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.-Early life:...
as Kay Douglas - Lewis BlackLewis BlackLewis Niles Black is an American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, social critic and actor. He is known for his comedy style, which often includes simulating a mental breakdown, or an increasingly angry rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena...
as Rob York
Competitions
The original screenplayScreenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
, East Broadway, by Fay Ann Lee, was a quarterfinalist for the 2003 Nicholl Fellowships (given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
), a semi-finalist at the Chesterfield Writer’s Film Project (run by Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
), and a finalist at the Asian American International Film Festival’s Screenwriting Competition.
Festivals
The film debuted at the 2006 Tribeca Film FestivalTribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
(as East Broadway). It has also screened at the following festivals: in 2007, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival
Vancouver Asian Film Festival
The Vancouver Asian Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia for about 4–5 days in November. Launching in 1996 , it is Canada’s oldest Asian film festival, exhibiting films and videos by North American artists of Asian heritage. Awards include a juried award...
, and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications . It was established in 1983 as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific American and Asian international cinema. The festival fulfills a unique mission in...
, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award; in 2008, the Phoenix Film Festival
Phoenix Film Festival
Phoenix Film Festival is a festival that celebrates feature films and their creators. The celebration takes place annually in the city of Phoenix, Arizona...
; and in 2009, the Reel Film Festival for Women in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where it won Best Dramatic Feature, and the Delray Beach Film Festival
Delray Beach Film Festival
The Delray Beach Film Festival is an independent film festival that screens films and documentaries from all over the world.The first Delray Beach festival was held in 2006 in Delray Beach, Florida...
, where it won the Best Feature Film Audience Award.
Distribution
After the East Broadway screenplay began to show well in competitions, producers started calling, interested in the commercial appeal of the story. One Hollywood producer would allegedly only buy the script if Lee changed the heroine’s ethnicity to Latino AmericanHispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
(for a star like Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
). Lee opted not to make the change, and decided instead to get it produced herself, raising the production budget
Production budget
A film production budget determines how much money will be spent on the entire film project. It involves the identification and estimation of cost items for each phase of filmmaking ....
over the course of 4 years.
The film had its world premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It was not picked up by a distributor
Film distributor
A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films to the public either theatrically or for home viewing...
. Filmmaker Lee said distributors told her a mainstream audience would not pay to see an Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
protagonist in an American romantic comedy.
Lee release the film herself in cities outside New York and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
She began by four-walling at the Sundance/Kabuki Theatre in San Francisco. There, Falling for Grace averaged over $5,000 per screen for three weeks. Michael Coppola, owner of the Fleur Cinema in Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, saw the film with his wife at the Camelview 5, Harkins Theatres
Harkins Theatres
Harkins Theatres is a movie theater chain with locations throughout the Southwestern United States. Harkins Theatres is privately owned and operated by its parent company, Harkins Enterprises, LLC...
in Scottsdale
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. "The minute I left the movie," said Coppola, "I looked at my wife and said, this is the movie I have to get." Falling for Grace opened at the Fleur Cinema in August 2008.
Falling for Grace has been released commercially in California, in San Francisco, Sausalito
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
, Grass Valley
Grass Valley, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Grass Valley had a population of 12,860. The population density was 2,711.3 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Grass Valley was 11,493 White, 46 African American, 208 Native American, 188 Asian, 9 Pacific Islander, 419 from other...
, Grass Valley
Nevada City, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Nevada City had a population of 3,068. The population density was 1,399.7 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Nevada City was 2,837 White, 26 African American, 28 Native American, 46 Asian, 0 Pacific Islander, 40 from other races,...
, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, and San Diego; in Des Moines
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
; in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
; in Lakeside
Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona
Pinetop-Lakeside is a town in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the town is 4,156. It was founded in 1984 when the neighboring towns of Pinetop and Lakeside merged....
and Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
; and in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The film was made available on Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
in 2011
Austrian previews
In 2007 a tourist from Austria saw Falling for Grace in San Francisco and she lobbied successfully for the Austrian movie theater chain Cineplexx (part of Constantin FilmConstantin Film
- History :Constantin Film Distribution GmbH was founded by Waldfried Barthel and Preben Philipsen on April 1, 1950 in Frankfurt, Germany. On December 21, 1964, the name of the company was changed to Constantin Film GmbH....
) and others to tour the movie as a sneak preview in nine theaters in Austria and one in Germany.
College speaking tour
Filmmaker Fay Ann Lee has addressed students across the country and in China regarding her experience making the film.She has been invited to speak at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
, Stanford, UC Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, James Madison
James Madison University
James Madison University is a public coeducational research university located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, U.S. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the university has undergone four name changes before settling with James Madison University...
, Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, Temple
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, UMass - Amherst
University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system...
, Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
, Harvard, the Wharton School of Business
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wharton was the world’s first collegiate business school and the first business school in the United States...
(Lee's alma mater
Alma mater
Alma mater , pronounced ), was used in ancient Rome as a title for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele, and in Christianity for the Virgin Mary.-General term:...
), and Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China.
After Lee screened the film and spoke at Harvard University, she was invited to act as an official Harvard Guest Speaker at the 2010 Young Leader's Conference in Beijing.