Jeff Daniels has made a lot of interesting choices in his acting career, appearing in films running the sublime to the ridiculous (i.e., "Gettysburg" to "Dumb and Dumber"). In GRAND TOUR: DISASTER IN TIME, he again makes an interesting choice as the lead in the adaptation by "Pitch Black" director David Twohy of the C.L. Moore's sci-fi novella "The Vintage Season."

Jeff plays the part of Ben Wilson, widower and single parent to precocious Hilary, who suffers nightmares involving a collision between a car and a horse. He is rebuilding an inn on the outskirts of a small New England town with his daughter when a mysterious person, Madame Lovine arrives and requests several rooms for her and her busload of tourists at the unfinished hotel. Ben grants her request when she offers him wads of cash. Trying to talk to these guests, Ben is perplexed by their rather eccentric behavior. Later, at a wedding, we find out that Ben's wife was killed in a collision between the car he was driving and a horse drawn sleigh - his nightmare images. The town's Judge, Caldwell, his father-in-law, blames Ben for his daughter's death and publicly berates him. Hilary attempts to intercede on her father's behalf, but the Judge continues to rail. Ben and Hilary leave, and talk under the stars, where she remembers her mother always played a certain song on the piano. Ben tells her the song was Beethoven's "Fur Elise". Back at the hotel, another "guest" - Mr. Quish - arrives, leaving a trail of ash and unable to tie his shoes, which further puzzles Ben. The next day, Ben asks Oscar, the tour bus driver, where he picked up such an odd assortment of characters. He tells Ben they were all waiting in the middle of nowhere and he just happened by and they chartered his services. Oscar comments for tourists it's sure strange that none of them have any cameras. In town, Ben gives the town's Reverend advice about the church's bell tower, which has not chimed in many years because of neglect. He agrees to help restore the bell tower, but leaves when the Reverend asks him about the circumstances of his wife's death. Ben sees Mr. Quish walking oddly about the town, and when the visitor is hit by a truck (he neglects to obey a crosswalk sign), Ben takes him to the hospital. Mr. Quish's X-rays reveal an abnormality in his skull, which he quickly dismisses when quizzed by Ben; however, our hero has Mr. Quish's passport. Unlike a real passport, Quish's is filled with dates and places such as "San Francisco 1906" and "Lakehurst, NJ 1937". Ben doesn't understand why, but Quish warns him to leave town immediately. Meanwhile, the Judge gets a court order from one of his cronies and takes Hilary away from Ben. Devastated, Ben books a room at the town's other hotel, where he realizes the dates and places in Quish's passport all coincide to disaster - the Great Earthquake of 1906, The Hindenburg. Before he can act upon this revelation, one of the tourists, the beautiful blonde Reeve, confirms that the tourists are from the "grand" future and have traveled back in time to witness catastrophes. She also drugs him. After Oscar rouses him from his stupor, Ben races back to his hotel, where the tourists are gathered on the top floor looking down upon the town. That's when the giant meteor strikes and obliterates half the town.

And on that rather dramatic note, I leave it up to you, dear reader, to watch the rest of the film. All I can say is that it's really good! (and don't drink the tea!) The story gets even more complicated (we are dealing with time travel, after all), but it never becomes too confusing. Director/writer Twohy cleverly ties together lots of small plot points into a very satisfying conclusion, although the very final shot is kind of cheesy. Unlike many similar sci-fi films, GRAND TOUR doesn't "dumb down" with lots of needless exposition and convenient "co-incidences" in the final reel. The entire cast does a wonderful job keeping the drama and suspense at a high level and Jeff Daniels really shows some good acting chops when the time travel aspect kicks into high gear. While there are some graphic scenes after the meteor hits, this movie would be entertaining for the whole brood, with it's strong themes of family and forgiveness. I believe GRAND TOUR was actually made for cable, which is apparent in its picture quality - not bad, but definitely not "big-screen". Sound is also good, but not the same complexity as theatrical films. Unfortunately, the DVD only includes the option of chapter search as an extra, although the film is presented wide-screen.

I really enjoyed GRAND TOUR. In fact, I made my wife wait until the film ended before we went out for dinner. So you know that if I'd rather watch a movie than eat, it's got to be a winner. Grand job, guys!