This romantic drama starring Richard Gere and Winona Ryder is about an unlikely love between a 48-year-old bachelor and a 22-year-old female with a life-threatening illness. Charlotte Fielding (Ryder) is an artist living with her grandmother, Dolly, played by Elaine Stritch. Will Keane (Gere) is an upscale restaurateur and a womanizer. Their first night together, he tells Charlotte not to expect permanence from him. She responds by telling him she has a tumor and is dying. Therefore, it couldn’t last forever anyway.
Will rejects ideas of love, but suddenly feels himself falling for Charlotte. However, when he is unfaithful, she sends him away. Unknown to Charlotte, Dolly knows a secret. The same man that Charlotte is falling in love with once broke her own mother’s heart years ago. When Charlotte comes home crying after learning that Will has slept with someone else, her grandmother finally divulges these details.
Will eventually seeks her forgiveness, leading to a short-lived affair, a love that Will never thought could happen. After a beautiful autumn together in New York, Charlotte dies, and Will is left alone, but later is shown to have a strong relationship with both his estranged daughter, and newborn grandson.
Richard Gere has won numerous awards throughout his career including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Gere is extremely famous for his role in Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts. Some of his other well known films have been Runaway Bride (also starring Julia Roberts), Primal Fear, Unfaithful with Diane Lane, Chicago with Taye Diggs, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones, Nights in Rodanthe, and Amelia.
Winona Ryder is a Golden Globe winner and two-time Oscar Nominee. Some of her most memorable work includes Beatle Juice, Mermaids (starring Cher), The Age of Innocence, Little Women, Girl Interrupted (with Angelina Jolie), Mr. Deeds (starring Adam Sandler), The Informers, and Star Trek.
During On Location Tours’ NYC TV & Movie Tour, you’ll see great locations from this and many other famous New York films. Feel like you were right there when you see Rockefeller Center, where Charlotte and Will went ice skating together. Catch of glimpse of beautiful Central Park, the most filmed location in the world. Check out on your own St. Luke’s Place Number 9, where Charlotte lived in the film. This building is actually the home of Arthur Laurents who wrote the book for West Side Story and The Way We Were.
* In an effort to stay current, we are constantly updating our tours with new locations and cannot guarantee the presence of locations mentioned on our site. If you have a particular interest in locations from a specific TV show or movie, please let your tour guide know and we will do our best to accommodate your request.