One dark misty morning Kathryn Lyons, Christine Lahti, sadly walks down the steps of her upstairs bedroom to answer the door. Fearing the worst the man knocking Robert Heart, Campball Scott, is a member of the pilot union that her husband Jack, John Heard, belongs to. The news from Robert is bad. The plane that Jack was flying from London to Boston crashed into the sea some ten miles west off the Irish coast with all 104 passengers and crew missing and presumed dead.

Kathryn now has to tell her fifteen year-old daughter Mattie, Alison Pill, the news which puts the young girl in such a state of shock that she needed medication to get her nerves and herself back together. As tragic as the accident was that killed Kathryn and Mattie's husband and father as well as the 103 others on the plane the news that started coming out about the accident from those involved in investigating it made it far more tragic. It was no accident and even at a more personal level Kathryn begins to find out that she didn't lose her husband Jack over the Atlantic Ocean that cold and misty morning she lost him some six years earlier. It was only because of what just had happened that the truth was able to finally come out.

Hunting film with fine performances by all involved about how life can prove to be unbearable when you not only lose a loved one but when that loved ones love was not entirely directed at you.

The leading actors in the movie Christine Lahti, the pilot's wife, Alison Pill, the pilot's daughter, John Heard, the pilot, Robert Heart,, the pilot's union representative,and Kristy Mitchell, the pilot's dark secret. The movie made what looked like an afternoon soap opera into a highly absorbing and watchable feather film.

Christine Lahti, Campbell Scott, and John Heard star in "The Pilot's Wife," a 2002 TV movie based on the novel by Anita Shreve.

Lahti plays Kathryn Lyons, whose husband piloted a plane that exploded over Ireland. A union executive (Campbell Scott) is on hand to break the news, help her with the press, and with the investigation into what happened. It doesn't take Kathryn long to realize that the higher-ups think that her husband had something to do with it.

Kathryn finds a phone number on a lottery ticket and eventually gets a line on a woman named Muire, but no one will talk to her. So she travels to Ireland to find out why her husband died and how Muire figured into it. She soon finds out that she didn't know a thing about her husband.

Thanks to Lahti, this film is somewhat interesting but not great. It's all over the place, taking off on a strange tangent into the IRA and terrorism. Also, as another reviewer said, there were 100 people on the plane. We don't hear much about the tragedy, just the investigation. It starts to feel like the pilot was the only one on the plane.

I think this film would have been better if the focus had been on Kathryn Lyons and her delusions about her marriage and her husband, and coming to terms with how it had affected her, her daughter, and her marriage. I felt the tangential plot was the focus rather than the personalities involved.

Disappointing, given the talent involved.

Interesting story of a plane crash with terrorist foundation. Unfortunately, too much else is put into the script.

John Heard portrays the airline pilot who apparently led quite a secret life.

Christine Lahti does quite well as the wife who finds out plenty when her husband and 104 others are killed in a plane crash. Lahti sounds like a serious Carol Burnett when she speaks.

What was the point of Heard never revealing that his mother was still living. Why did he say that she died when he was 9?

With the government investigating the tragedy, is this really the time for the teenage daughter to admit to Lahti that last year, at age 14, she had intercourse. Come on. A scene before, she is hysterical with grief over her father's death.

The interesting part of the story is merely glossed over. I am talking about Heard's involvement with the IRA in Northern Ireland. His newly discovered second wife and family is a shocker adequately dealt with.

No wonder Lahti throws away her wedding ring at the spot where the plane went down. Anyone would do the same thing.