The incredible Mary Steenburgen adds another terrific performance to her gallery of great roles as a mentally challenged woman who lives with mother Marian Ross and daughter Kellie Martin, spending time tending to her flowers yet vanishing here and there which causes great worry. The sudden death of Ross really early in the film causes a conflict between Martin and Ross's sister Diane Baker who had assumed she would be given charge of Steenburgen but Ross's will grants guardianship to her granddaughter. With Baker hanging around, the tug of war between Baker and Martin increases as their desire to do the best thing have different opinions.
This really hits a home run by presenting Steenburgen as looking completely normal until she begins to speak, yet there's an underlying hidden intelligence and frustration in her, the desire to live with dignity. This teaches the audience that you don't always know the truth about someone just by their looks, and even someone with developmental disabled issues has a working brain, just one that works differently than most others.
When the subject of Martin's father comes up, the writers could have gone in different directions, but the one they choose seems to be the most believable, similar to Addie and Blair from "One Life to Live". Steenburgen has a male admirer (Nick Searcy) who lives a normal life, but Baker's controlling personality threatens to destroy that, and this creates more conflict between them. Martin finds a sympathetic ear in her wonderful boyfriend Chad Christ who is truly supportive, a nice addition to this woman's story.
You will be completely moved by this story that has no bad guys, even Baker, whose motives are understandable even if her methods make you hiss her at times. I wish that Ross has been in the film a bit more because she's always a delight, and Martin really shows strength in a role that in lesser hands could have been weak and cloying. Even though she has her doubts about Searcy, she's at least not as hard on him as Baker is. But a sad twist shows how people take advantage of others like this, and that is an upsetting plot device that really stings.
Steenburgen shows the frustration in her knowledge of her mental weakness through a serious frown that I've seen in people with similar issues that can suddenly disappear into a bright smile that suddenly makes all her issues seem to disappear. This gives nice detail to the complicated issues people with this problem go through as well as preconceived notions, and that makes this a learning experience for those who don't understand what this kind of life consists of. It's bittersweet and a bit depressing, but the great acting and well crafted teleplay makes this worth checking out.
This really hits a home run by presenting Steenburgen as looking completely normal until she begins to speak, yet there's an underlying hidden intelligence and frustration in her, the desire to live with dignity. This teaches the audience that you don't always know the truth about someone just by their looks, and even someone with developmental disabled issues has a working brain, just one that works differently than most others.
When the subject of Martin's father comes up, the writers could have gone in different directions, but the one they choose seems to be the most believable, similar to Addie and Blair from "One Life to Live". Steenburgen has a male admirer (Nick Searcy) who lives a normal life, but Baker's controlling personality threatens to destroy that, and this creates more conflict between them. Martin finds a sympathetic ear in her wonderful boyfriend Chad Christ who is truly supportive, a nice addition to this woman's story.
You will be completely moved by this story that has no bad guys, even Baker, whose motives are understandable even if her methods make you hiss her at times. I wish that Ross has been in the film a bit more because she's always a delight, and Martin really shows strength in a role that in lesser hands could have been weak and cloying. Even though she has her doubts about Searcy, she's at least not as hard on him as Baker is. But a sad twist shows how people take advantage of others like this, and that is an upsetting plot device that really stings.
Steenburgen shows the frustration in her knowledge of her mental weakness through a serious frown that I've seen in people with similar issues that can suddenly disappear into a bright smile that suddenly makes all her issues seem to disappear. This gives nice detail to the complicated issues people with this problem go through as well as preconceived notions, and that makes this a learning experience for those who don't understand what this kind of life consists of. It's bittersweet and a bit depressing, but the great acting and well crafted teleplay makes this worth checking out.