According to Karen Allen her return to the role of Marion Ravenwood in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is like “a little like being shot out of a cannon.” It has been 27 years since Ms. Allen, 56, played Harrison Ford’s rugged romantic interest in Raiders of the Lost Ark. There followed breakthrough roles in films like Manhattan, The Perfect Storm and In the Bedroom. Today, she owns a knitting shop and teaches acting— but a call from Steven Spielberg, inviting her to join the newest Indiana Jones movie, thrust her back into the spotlight.

At the movie’s preview last Wednesday, Ms. Allen was greeted by flash bulbs, autograph hounds and knitting enthusiasts. One woman hugged Ms. Allen and said, “I don’t know if you remember me, but I took your knitting class.”

Later, Ms. Allen joined family and friends, at dinner. There was her son, Nick, 17; ex-husband, Kale Browne; manager, Joan Hyler; the poet Michael Lally and his son, Flynn, and friends Christy Zea and Frosty Montgomery.

Ms. Allen said: “People want to see a movie that casts a mature woman across from a mature man. They’re not matching Harrison with a 30-year-old.”

In a lull between courses, she did her best to answer a barrage of questions about the movie: Where was it shot? (Los Angeles, mostly.) Was the scene of a nuclear mushroom cloud made with government footage? (Hotly debated.)

Supping on porcini ravioli and sipping the house red, Ms. Allen conferred with Nick, a freshman at Bard, about his paper on Frederick Douglass.

After dessert, 10-year-old Flynn looked up from his chocolate cake and offered Ms. Allen an unsolicited review of the film. “The funny thing about the movie is that you punch him and then you kiss him,” he said.

“Well, that’s love,” Ms.
Allen
said.
-WINTER MILLER