Firefly Lane
BOXSET
Chalk and cheese friends Tully and Kate first meet as young teenagers in the 1970s when Tully moves to the quiet suburban street of Firefly Lane with her out-ofcontrol hippy drug-addict mother.
The action then follows the two friends through from their teenage years to their 20s in the 1980s, right up to the early 2000s when they are in their forties.
The narrative switches between the three time frames, with Ali Skovbye and Roan Curtis playing the characters as teenagers and Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke as the 20 and 40-something versions of Tully and Kate respectively.
We see them go to college together where they are roommates, Kate is studious and Tully has an affair with one of the professors. In the 1980s they begin their careers in broadcast journalism, with Kate diligently working behind the cameras as a production assistant while Tully pushes on ambitiously to become a presenter. Kate meets her producer husband Johnny (Ben Lawson) and Tully indulges a drugs and alcohol habit.
By the time they are in their forties in 2003, Tully has her own popular TV show, The Girlfriend Hour, and is enjoying a fling with a 29-year-old while Kate’s marriage is falling apart as she tries to get back into the workplace after having spent over a decade as a full-time mom. Broad character strokes aside, the storyline is engaging and Heigel and Chalke are both very accomplished in their portrayals.
Their sometimes stormy relationship is believable and the period detail for each era – costumes, hairstyles, make-up, music – is all nostalgia-inducingly spot on. As a celebration of longtime female friendship, it is moving and uplifting.