From the opening this film is narrated by Kimball Smyth, (Andrew Prine), an integral character who serves as a sort of Greek chorus, commenting on the events as they unfold. In the late 1950s Texas teenager Callie Martha Lord (Lindsay Wagner), an unwed mother, is forced to sell her baby to adoptive parents. She regrets this but, moving on with her life, Callie goes to Dallas and becomes a court stenographer. The film now follows the events of her rise from self-directed young woman to owner and editor of a Dallas newspaper. Dabney Coleman as her rich and devoted husband manages to locate and somehow repurchase her lost son, presenting him to his wife as a gift. Making up for lost time, Callie devotes herself so exclusively to Randy that she begins to dominate his life, transferring her ambitions for his future onto the young man who doesn't share them. Events from the 60s and 70s impact the story as it unfolds an increasingly sophisticated Callie and a rebellious Randy who marries a less than suitable Sue Lynn (Michelle Pfeiffer) in an act of passive aggression. Everything takes a downturn now. There is murder, incarceration, broken dreams and unrequited love. But somehow, Callie emerges relatively unscathed and manages to find a way to, in effect, start over. There is a furtive, mean-spirited energy that drives the story: entitlement, privilege, lies and secrets, issues of dominance and reprisal color the action, making it darker than it need have been. As a contrast and for its calm, detachment, Prine's narration is, arguably, the best part of the film.
Review of Callie & Son
