A Cool, Dry Place

A Cool, Dry Place is a 1998 drama movie adapted by Matthew McDuffie from the 1996 novel "Dance Real Slow" by Michael Grant Jaffe. It was directed by John N. Smith. The movie stars Vince Vaughn, Monica Potter, Joey Lauren Adams and Bobby Moat.
Synopsis.
Russ, (Vince Vaughn) a single father, balances work as an attorney with caring for his five-year-old son, Calvin (Bobby Moat). Father and son adjust to their new life in rural Kansas, as Kate (Monica Potter), wife and mother abandoned them 18 months ago. Grandpa sends Calvin a jellyfish from Florida. It is obviously dead but the boy wants to keep it, calling it "Mom".
Russ also coaches the local high school basketball team and tells disrespectful, frequently absent Noah (Devon Sawa) he is benched for the next game. The boy's older sister and guardian Beth (Joey Lauren Adams) retaliates by dumping a bag of dog food on the coach's windshield. She frightens Calvin, but in making it up to them leads to dating Russ.
Suddenly, wife Kate (Monica Potter) reappears, wanting to re-assert herself in her son's life. Russ feels torn between the two women and what to do with Calvin. Kate makes Ross forget that he has been caring for his son totally on his own and he begins to doubt his ability to raise him. Then as he starts to think they might reconcile, she confesses that not only has she fallen in love with another, but that she probably never even loved him. 
While Russ is in Dallas for a job interview for his dream job at a major firm, Kate runs off with the boy to Cincinnati. When he realizes, he talks to Beth, who convinces him that Calvin needs him, so he follows his wife to get his unhappy son back. Russ then turns down the job, Kate admits he is right and gives the boy back, and Russ and Calvin return to Kansas and Beth.
Production.
A large part of the film was not shot in Kansas, but rather in the town of Lindsay, Ontario (now part of the city of Kawartha Lakes) as well as the town of Brooklin.
Reception.
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 54% rating.