The subject matter of the Lifetime movie "We Were the Mulvaneys" (Monday, 7 p.m.) made for a number of difficult scenes for its stars. Based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates, it's the story of a family whose lives are torn apart when the teenage daughter is raped.
And, as is often the case, some of the most emotionally difficult scenes were filmed first when the telefilm was in production this past fall. Which made what happened next even more disconcerting.
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, "overzealous baggage handlers" X-rayed all the film shot in the first three days of the shoot when it was sent to be developed, ruining it. To put it in some perspective, the lost film represented about 10 percent of the original shooting schedule.
"So some of the most difficult scenes in the movie had to be reshot, and these guys found it again in just the most amazing ways," said executive producer Frank Sertner. "So it's a tribute to who these actors are."
Fortunately, you could scarcely find a more talented group than "these guys" — Blythe Danner and Beau Bridges play the Mulvaney parents, Corinne and Michael, and Tammy Blanchard (who starred as the young Judy Garland in "Me and My Shadows") plays Marianne.
"This was a dream team," said director Peter Werner. "This was a fabulous experience for me personally. And working with these actors is why you wanted to be a director in the first place."
"You feel sometimes when you're working with people or with scripts that aren't as strong (that) you have to work so hard at summoning the emotion," Danner said. "And this was so joyful, as perverse as that might seem, because so many times you don't feel that you've hit where you want to go — where you see the scene going.
"There was an ease working with Beau, Tammy and Peter. You always hope you're going to have these experiences and so rarely do."
"We Were the Mulvaneys" is one of the finest TV movies of the season. Joyce Eliason did an excellent job with the script, adapting Oates' devastating story of a family that comes apart at the seams because no one — not the parents, the daughter or the three sons (Thomas Guiry, Jacob Pitts and Mike Famiglietti) know how to deal with the issues that arise in the aftermath of the rape.
"I think the rape is what catalyzes the family," said Werner, who called the story "a tragedy of goodness."
"It's a father-son story. It's a husband-wife story. It's a mother-daughter story. And I think that's what resonates with the people who've seen it — that it is a universal story. And, although it was set in the '70s, it resonates as much, if not more, today."
Bridges said he saw parallels between the real-life situation of the ruined film and the situation the characters faced.
"The dad, he wanted to keep his family secure. He wanted them to be able to live happily like this forever," he said. "But that's not life, and he was defeated by it. As an actor, you've got to realize real quick in the ballgame that everything's going to change so you might as well not worry about it and just get comfortable with the fact that that's what you do."
Not that anyone was happy about having to reshoot those scenes. Danner said she was "devastated, because it had gone so well."
"Sometimes you have to dredge things up and it's so difficult, those emotional scenes. And because they came so fully and easily it was very upsetting to think that we would have to summon this up again."
But they went back and did just that.
"Once in a while, you have a shot that's ruined or scratched . . . and you look at the scene and you go,' Oh, good. I get to do this again.' And you think of a different angle or something," Werner said. "We didn't change a single set-up. We just shot the same exact set-ups."
"Except some of the attitudes," Danner said, "actually, we had a chance to improve one scene, I felt. We got to explore it more."
In the end, the only thing viewers at home might have noticed about the film mishap was that it kept Blanchard in Canada a couple of extra days — long enough to keep the Emmy nominee (for "Judy Garland") from attending last fall's awards ceremonies.
"I was kind of bummed out about that," she said with a laugh.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com