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flomert34
Reviews
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
Better on stage
Having seen the "definitive" stage version of this, featuring Colleen Dewhurst and Michael Dunn, I wasn't hopeful for this film holding a candle to it. I came away feeling that this particular piece does not translate to film. Vanessa Redgrave is a wonderful actress and seeing her beautiful, expressive face with no makeup and her hair cut short is quite startling, but effective. I found myself focusing on her big blue eyes most of the time, as they told the mood of her character throughout. I doubt they could've found anyone better for the role. It's simply that the entire production didn't quite gel. It truly works better in the theatre. I'm still not entirely decided on whether I completely disliked it.
A Brand New Life (1973)
Entertaining enough, but overrated
There were some really good TV-movies made in the '70s, featuring some topnotch actors. I actually enjoy watching even the mediocre ones. The Emmy win for Cloris Leachman (one of those aforementioned very good actors) in this role had me expecting this movie to be better than it was.
I can't help holding it to the standard of another '70s TV-movie about middle-aged pregnancy, And Baby Makes Six. The plot lines differ, although, oddly, Mildred Dunnock plays the mother of the pregnant women in both and both films try to make a statement about Women's Lib, but in different ways. And Baby Makes Six was a lot richer than A Brand New Life, plus it had humor. The characters were more developed and Colleen Dewhurst just makes you love her. As talented as Leachman is, her Victoria wasn't as real as Dewhurst's Anna.
When Victoria finds out she's pregnant (unintentionally) for the first time at 40, her husband Jim is immediately thrilled, while she has serious doubts. She doesn't want to give up her dream job and is satisfied with their life the way it is, although they had tried to get pregnant earlier in their marriage. Plus, she thinks she's too old to be having her first child.
Her closest friend is a self-admitted bad mother, who has a poor relationship with her boarding school teenager, and tries to convince Vicky that motherhood is not for her. I guess this was a Women's Lib attempt to illustrate that not every woman is cut out for motherhood and they shouldn't be judged for not wanting kids. But what friend would say this stuff to a confused and emotionally fragile gal pal in this kind of situation?
The most painfully awkward scene to watch involves Vicky seeking her mother's advice on what to do. Her mother basically informs her that she and Vicky's father never intended to have any children and had tried unsuccessfully to obtain an abortion when she got pregnant with her. She advises Vicky to get an abortion, as her marriage was never quite the same again after having Vicky. Vicky is obviously very hurt by this information, even though her mother tells her that she loves her. What kind of mother tells her kid, even a grown-up one, that she wanted an abortion?
It's plain from the cover of the DVD what decision is ultimately made (surprise, surprise). Along the way, Vicky deals with her job, her demanding but compassionate boss and meets Sarah, a young, unmarried pregnant woman who inspires her. Jim brings home a pile of parenting books, convinces Vicky she's not like her mother and they decide to have the baby.
Suddenly, after Vicky is committed to the idea of parenthood, formerly gung-ho Jim goes all negative on her. Attending a natural childbirth class and having to move out of their adults-only building spooks him. A brief pep talk from her is all it takes to get him back on board. Please. All this agonizing back and forth over the big decision and they cheapen it with that little segue.
By this point, the movie is less than 15 minutes from being over and you feel like you still don't really know these people or even as though you're invested in the outcome of their story. The rest feels like it was hastily slapped together to wrap things up quickly because they ran out of time.
Cloris Leachman is cute as Vicky, and mostly sympathetic. Martin Balsam as Jim is a bit overbearing and I would've rather seen an actor in the role who didn't look 15 years older than Leachman (who looked younger than she was at the time). Marge Redmond as Vicky's pal Eleanor is over-the-top obnoxious. Mildred Dunnock in the mother role is just embarrassing. Her mother character in And Baby Makes Six managed to be both very flawed and amusingly likable in minimal screen time. That didn't happen here. Karen Philipp is appropriately hippie-like in playing Sarah.
Seriously, I'm mystified as to how Leachman won an Emmy for this role while Colleen Dewhurst couldn't even snag a nomination for And Baby Makes Six. We're talking a lion vs. a lamb here.
Baby Comes Home (1980)
Colleen Dewhurst always shines
I picked up a used copy of this film, which is no longer in print, because I have always liked Colleen Dewhurst. She can really do no wrong as an actress and you get the sense that she is elevating Baby Comes Home to a level it would not reach with a lesser talent playing the lead.
As the previous review states, Dewhurst's character is Anna Kramer, a woman in her late 40s who has just had a baby. She was apparently unprepared for the extent to which this event would turn her life on end. Her behaviour soon has her husband, mother and grown children baffled. Previously a happy, self-assured person, Anna turns into a near agoraphobic, literally getting lightheaded at the thought of leaving the house. She is suddenly terrified of getting older, confesses to a friend that she is embarrassed of her body and shuns intimacy with her frustrated husband Michael.
Anna's mother Serena (well-played by Mildred Dunnock) does seem to have a handle on what is eating at Anna, but the rest of the family is without a clue. Stiff and reserved Serena does not really embrace her daughter's warm and affectionate nature or understand devotion to her family. Thus, there is some underlying resentment between the two and Serena does not know how to effectively reach Anna.
Michael appears to simultaneously love and resent the new baby. In one strange scene, he kisses and cuddles her while telling her that they are rivals for Mom's attention. He pressures his wife to stop breastfeeding, even though it is something she clearly feels strongly about doing. Throughout much of the film, it looks like he is mostly thinking about how he is not getting enough attention, instead of, "What is wrong with my wife and how can I help her?" Warren Oates does well with the part, but Michael is not an entirely sympathetic character.
The grown children are equally self-absorbed. The youngest, Jason, who is in his last year of secondary school, is in his own depression because of his low standardised test scores. One gets the sense that the normally watchful eye of his mother would have caught this, had she not been going through her own struggles. The middle son, Franklin, is the most sensitive to Anna's issues, but is too busy avoiding his elder sister Elizabeth to be of much help. Elizabeth is busy working at her great job, dealing with her needy husband and hounding Franklin about his lack of employment.
Eventually, it is the seriousness of Jason's (and his best friend's) situation that brings Anna back to reality, so she can figure out how to balance the elements of her old life with the inevitable changes brought about by having a baby at that point in her life. Colleen Dewhurst gives the character more layers and depth than the cardboard cut-out that she could have been, given some of the trite dialogue.
As a whole, though, it was interesting and entertaining. Unfortunately, a made-for-TV film such as this one would never be made these days in the USA. Unless it is about sex and stars young and beautiful people, they do not think anyone will be interested.