Grade: C+

Verdict: Those with the patience to submit to its low-energy charms may find their time well spent.

Details: Starring Alexis Bledel, Jonathan Jackson, William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, Ben Kingsley. Directed by Jay Russell. Rated PG for some violence. 88 minutes.

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Review: With a mane of dark curls, bright blue eyes and the timeless look of Helena Bonham Carter mixed with the spunk of a young Judy Davis, Alexis Bledel is probably the best reason to see "Tuck Everlasting."

As for the film itself, reactions should range from a few tears (probably exclusively from older females) to a few yawns (from the youngsters who presumably form much of the target audience).

After all, "Tuck Everlasting" deals with such weighty issues as death and immortality, or more precisely, which you would choose, if you could.

That probably isn't a question that keeps too many youngsters up at night. But while it's slow and ponderous at times, the film is quite beautiful and dreamlike, and those with the patience to submit to its low-energy charms may find their time well spent.

The film, directed by Jay Russell ("My Dog Skip"), is the second to be made of a Natalie Babbitt book (aimed at ages 9-12) about the Tuck family, who live in the woods and harbor a fascinating secret--a beautiful and a terrible one.

The secret is there to be discovered by Winnie Foster (Bledel, who plays the daughter on the WB's "Gilmore Girls")--a restless 15-year-old who's straining against the rigidity of her household, run by her stuffy but well-meaning parents, played by Amy Irving and Victor Garber.

The movie begins with a tease: a handsome young man--or more precisely, totally hot, as Jonathan Jackson (formerly of the soap "General Hospital") is likely to be described by the girls who see this film--arrives in a modern-day small town on a motorcycle. He's looking for something, but we don't know what.

Cut back to 1914, in the quaint town of Treegap. Winnie is the resident rich kid, and she's bored with staying home and playing the piano.

When her parents command her to attend boarding school, she rebels, running out into the forbidding woods that her family owns. There she comes across Jesse Tuck (Jackson)--the aforementioned good-looking guy, who's drinking from a spring at the bottom of a tree carved with a "T."

There's something secret about this spring, and soon Jesse's stern older brother (Scott Bairstow of the old Fox series "Party of Five") arrives to kidnap Winnie and take her home to their family, all to protect the secret.

It turns out this spring is the source of everlasting life. A century ago, the Tuck family drank from it, and now they are frozen in time, at the ages they first drank. They're also immune to illness and injury, and they can't be killed.

Enter the Man in the Yellow Suit, played menacingly but with some restraint by Ben Kingsley. He's heard about the spring and is determined to find the Tucks, force them to reveal its whereabouts and exploit it. The Tucks fear that after all these years -- 17-year-old Jesse is actually a remarkably preserved centenarian -- they're about to be uncovered.

In the meantime, as Winnie's frantic parents search for her, aided by the nefarious yellow-suited man, Winnie and Jesse frolic in the woods. These budding-love scenes would be unbearably corny if the two actors weren't charming, especially Bledel. It's hard not to smile as they take an impromptu romantic swim.

As the Tuck mother, Mae, Sissy Spacek is appropriately earthy and quirky. But William Hurt, as dad Angus, hasn't quite got his Scottish accent down.

Kingsley, though, who sports long, flowing hair here, is fun to watch--especially when a priest tells him he is "speaking blasphemy" and he tartly replies: "Fluently."

In the end, of course, Winnie will be forced to decide. Will she choose to take a drink from the spring and live eternally at age 15, with the dreamy Jesse? Or will she choose life--and its inevitable end--without him?

The answer is no surprise. Of course, we knew where this wholesome fantasy was going all along. But do we really mind?

— Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press