I was only about 10 years old when I saw this on TV. The character of Larry is very touching. It was probably the first time I was given some insight into a person behind a disability. Tyne Daly (of Cagney & Lacy fame) is great as a social worker who has her own challenges as she tries to teach Larry how to act like an adult. Frederic Forrest personifies Larry with an excellent performance. There are moments as an adult, he has difficulties accepting a world when he is developmentally still a child. As the audience, I felt great sympathy for his challenge to learn that as an adult, you have to make compromises. A key scene is where Larry must learn to live on a budget. He wants to buy some toys and needs to decide which toy he needs to give up. The cashier asks how old Larry's child is (that she thinks is getting the toys). Larry responds that the toys are for himself. Another scene is where Daly is trying to teach Larry how to eat like an adult. Larry refuses, and throws some food into Daly's face. You could see her use all her might (mentally) to control her reaction.
The insight Forrest shows us is that there is still a real thinking person inside a damaged body. They are still capable of functioning as an adult, and deserve the respect as any other individual. I am writing this review on the day Frederic Forrest died. He took advantage of having average looks to bring the everyman character to the screen, a rare quality. For me, being able to remember how touching this TV movie was, having only seen it once over 40 years ago, is a testament of how powerful of an actor Forrest was.