Anna Paquin

Critics, I confess, often apply their severest standards to the most ambitious and admirable undertakings, not always expressing their gratitude that the thing was undertaken at all. It is an ironic compliment to the ambition of the work, but the compliment is a well-disguised blessing, and one the creators would generally be willing to do without. So it is with the new television adaptation of Carson McCullers' 1946 novel "The Member of the Wedding," which comes to USA cable at 9 tonight.

Even for kids, the premise sounded just too bizarre, too Disney-esque, to work. Here's a girl who lives with her divorced mother in New Zealand. The mother dies, so the girl has to go live with her father, an inventor who lives on a farm in Ontario. For fun, he builds his own flying machines.

Hollywood's A-list actors and directors generally place a high premium on awards. But to 11-year-old New Zealander Anna Paquin whose first screen performance as Holly Hunter's daughter in Jane Campion's "The Piano" earned her a Golden Globe best supporting actress nomination and a shared prize from the L.A. Film Critics, the honors are just another curve in the fairy-tale road she's traveled since landing the role.