Perfect Movie Scenes - Deep Impact

Deep Impact is a show I like to pull out every once in a while and watch again. It has a few deeply emotional moments that really shine for me, though the moment that should have been the best didn't quite achieve its zenith, and that is because of a brief lapse in the writing.

The movie features a bunch of great actors: Elijah Wood before he became a hobbit; Morgan Freeman as the President of the United States (sidenote: in my opinion, the best job an actor has ever submitted as president); Vanessa Redgrave; Robert Duvall;  Leelee Sobieski; Maximillian Schell; and last but certainly not least, Tea Leoni.

 Yes, I know, not from Deep Impact, but this is
a good picture of Tea's legs

I mean, look at those legs. I'm glad I'm typing this because I'm speechless. Tea was perfect in this movie as Jenny Lerner, a driven, talented reporter who makes the best of an opportunity when it falls in her lap. At the same time, as the movie delves into Jenny's backstory you also start to see a vulnerability lurking behind her eyes, which traces back to a troubled childhood and a father who likely cheated on the mother. Jenny loves her parents and spends much of the movie playing referee for two adults who should be the ones imparting strength to her.

Yeah, um, dad, that wave is bigger
than I thought it would be

The mom ends up dying (sorry if you haven't seen this movie made in 1998) which simplifies what Jenny needs to do to find resolution to her story. She passes up a chance to fly to a place where she could survive the oncoming meteor, and instead travels to a beach house to reconcile with her father. The set up is perfect. She is basically choosing to die with her father on the beach just so that she can tell him she loves him despite the mistakes he made.

Jenny puts it all out there and Maximillion Schell has the opportunity to say the words that will redeem him and put a period at the end of this story that fully satisfies the audience. When Jenny finishes unloading about how Maximillion wasn't there when she needed him, she says "I've missed you, Daddy."

To which he responds - "I missed you too."

What?

I missed you too?!!

That's kind of like what Han Solo said to Leia only not cool! And it wasn't meant to be cool. Or ironic.

Maybe the writer got confused, which is too bad. Schell was giving an answer to Tea, not Leia. The correct response would have been, of course, "I'm sorry."

A perfect movie moment in the making that fizzled. I really wish I could go back in time and change that line on the script.