This is without a doubt the best role and performance I've seen in Angie Dickinson's lengthy career, not that I didn't find her to be a good actress, just one that wasn't always offered the strongest of parts beyond typical fluff. She's the wife of college English professor Peter Donat and mother of smart teen Gordon Pinsent, unaware that her husband is going through serious emotional problems in regards to his profession and other issues, ultimately leading to his suicide. Mother and son can barely communicate afterwards outside of emotional blowups, and as she tries to go on with her life finds all sorts of obstacles of all nature's. Financial, emotional, practical, and ultimately hopeful.
The film reveals a few secrets as well as a few possibilities that Donat couldn't reveal, and both mother and son have to face themselves as each other as grief goes through all those steps. There's a few surprisingly brilliant moments such as when Pinsent has to deal with school bullies harassing him about the suicide, neighbors coming onto Dickinson, certain she's an easy conquest, how a friendship can blossom into the kind of relationship that someone in pain needs, and the friendship between Donat and gay student Lane Davies that may have been more than just literary interests in common. Quite sad at times, but ultimately a drama of triumph and moving past the seemingly impossible outcome.
The film reveals a few secrets as well as a few possibilities that Donat couldn't reveal, and both mother and son have to face themselves as each other as grief goes through all those steps. There's a few surprisingly brilliant moments such as when Pinsent has to deal with school bullies harassing him about the suicide, neighbors coming onto Dickinson, certain she's an easy conquest, how a friendship can blossom into the kind of relationship that someone in pain needs, and the friendship between Donat and gay student Lane Davies that may have been more than just literary interests in common. Quite sad at times, but ultimately a drama of triumph and moving past the seemingly impossible outcome.
