Up Close and Personal (1996)


Robert Redford          Warren Justice
Michelle Pfeiffer       Tally Atwater
Stockard Channing       Marcia McGrath
Joe Mantegna            Bucky Terranova
Kate Nelligan           Joanna Kennelly
Glenn Plummer           Ned Jackson
James Rebhorn           John Merino
Scott Bryce             Rob Sullivan
Raymond Cruz            Fernando Buttanda
Dedee Pfeiffer          Luanne Atwater
Miguel Sandoval         Dan Duarte
Noble Willingham        Buford Sells
James Karen             Tom Orr

Directed by:            Jon Avnet
Produced by:            David Nicksay, John Foreman, Ed Hookstratten


Tally Atwater is one of the most trusted figures in the nation. A familiar and comforting face to the 
millions of network TV news viewers who invite her into their homes every day, Tally is an articulate, 
sophisticated and charming newscaster. But she didn't start out that way. A onetime waitress and casino 
craps dealer named Sallyanne, from Reno, Nevada, she pursued a dream with nothing but ambition, raw talent 
and a homemade demo tape. Going from smalltown weathergirl to prime-time network anchor, her meteoric rise 
to prominence is aided and abetted by Warren Justice, a brilliant, older newsman who becomes her mentor 
and lover. As their relationship grows, so too does Tally's celebrity, to the point where her popularity 
begins to eclipse his.

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This is a telling of the Jessica Savitch story, the newswoman who, in the 1970's, became the "First Woman Anchor". 
Sally/Tally is taken under the wing of Warren in a Miami newsroom and becomes a news star on TV. Despite her love 
for Warren, she takes the big chance and moves on to Philadelphia, where he follows to rescue her faltering 
career at the cost of his own - as she rises he falls.

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Sally Atwater is a young woman looking to become a star in the news and television industry. She sends out a tape 
to a lot of stations, but only one answers it. She first becomes a secretary, and Warren Justice later makes her 
a weather person, and then finally a real news person.