The onscreen love story: Though Shannon had been a wealthy aristocrat and Joseph a poor farm boy in Ireland, they find themselves equally hard up after they immigrate to America. Against the setting of the Industrial Revolution-era New York, they fall hard for each other and live happily ever after on their newly claimed land.
The offscreen love story: Cruise and Kidman had met on the set of an earlier movie (Days of Thunder) and were married for a couple of years already when they made this movie. But by 2001, they were done — and free to move on to their next spouses.