When Laura (Julia Roberts) sneaks off to a new life, she sets up in a small town in Iowa and assumes a new identity as Sara. There she meets a better, but aggressively forceful, man Ben (Kevin Anderson) which makes her uneasy with everything she’s been through with her abusive husband Martin (Patrick Burgin).

At this location, there are establishing shots, as well as a parade scene. This is not in Wilmington, nor in Iowa, rather it is a small town in South Carolina named Abbeville, some 250 miles due west as-the-crow-flies. It’s much closer to Atlanta, Georgia, which is some 115 miles west of Abbeville.

Ben (Kevin Anderson) whisks Sara/Laura (Julia Roberts) off to the theatre he has access to as a drama professor. There, he enchants her with some swinger action before dumping his load of snow all over her hair and face. It was truly a magical scene, but destroyed with a montage of way too many hats being jammed on her head.

I hadn’t even realized it, it was framed so tightly that not much was given away, but a comment found on another filming location website stated that this was shot at Thalian Hall. Given that so much of this film was shot in Abbeville, South Carolina, I assumed this was shot there as well. But I noticed that the brief glimpse of Ben shows columns and doors which match with Thalian Hall.