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Reviews
A Step Toward Tomorrow (1996)
Commercial release?
It just amazes me that this movie, which is Reeve's first appearance on-screen since his accident, isn't available on VHS or DVD.
It seems that Lifetime has some rights to run it, but it's not listed and there seems to be no way to get feedback from them about it.
If you've not seen this movie, you're really missing an excellent show that raises some valid points about the problems of health care - at least in the United States...
The problem the mom runs into, in not only having a low paying job, are the facts that she can't raise the money to pay for her son's operation when the "by the book" insurance carrier refuses to pay for it, and the hospital is afraid of being sued for carrying out an experimental surgery on such a small boy. Meanwhile, the boy is left to suffer...until the end of the movie, that is.
Almost Angels (1962)
Why Does Disney DO what they do?
This movie should have much exposure than it did. I can't really add much more to the existing comments.
It's a marvelous family movie, and especially heartwarming for any boy who has any musical talent - singing or playing - to watch.
Why Disney hasn't put this and some of their other timeless classics onto restored DVD's, I have no idea. I'd be waiting in line to buy this one if it were available.
So if any of you greedy format-inventing Disney dorks are reading, get some of the old stuff out and remaster it. You'll be even richer than you already are!
Other Voices, Other Rooms (1995)
Confusing and too jumpy...
...and especially disastrous if you've read the story already.
Everyone who sees the name "Truman Capote" is already braced for impact, so to say, that something strange and/or awful is going to happen, and probably to the boy in the stories. With that in mind, why is it so impossible for anyone to make a movie - whether of a Capote work or not - that stays true enough to the story to not offend the viewers/readers? As for the actors, I was ready to strangle Miss Amy right after "meeting" her. Zoo, Randolph, and the rest were OK. Speck as Joel was watchable, almost appearing as if he were waiting for his chance to act - and never got it. What he did get, as far as script and direction, obviously, he did well with. One can only imagine the scenes so carefully avoided, and how he could have done those. And what of the relationship with Randolph and Joel? I kept waiting for the obvious to be stated - that he wanted the boy there not only to atone for what he had done wrong...but probably to do MORE wrong things.
That never happened.
Children get molested every day. A lot of the viewers were probably molested as children. A lot of us were, no doubt, put through worse when we were Capote's age in this tale. The film makers would not have had to have a full blown-nude-rape scene; they could have "filmed around that" and still had the carnival and Miss Wisteria, and strongly implied that she was after him.
Also, the timeline of Capote's recollections is confusing, when compared to "A Christmas MEMORY, THE THANKSGIVING VISITOR, and ONE Christmas." By this age, the boy should have been in a military school already. However, it could be a stretch in the semi-autobiographical sense, and I simply misinterpret.
But with an episode like this in his life, is it any wonder that he turned out the way he did? The closest thing I can compare this film to in the area of mangling a book by turning it into a movie is to compare it to Spielber's "AI" with Haley Joel Osment as a robot boy. I'm sure both Stanley Kubrick and Truman Capote went spinning in their graves after these films were made.
My only advice - watch the film, re-read the story, and use that to create your own film in your head.
A Christmas Memory (1997)
It's awful
There's no nice to say it. It sucks.
The original with Geraldine Page and Donnie Melvin, which IMDb doesn't even list, is far and away probably one of the best short movies EVER made. It's almost as if Page is not playing "Sook" - she IS Sook, as she comes out of the shadows with an oil lamp on Christmas Eve to comfort Buddy...it gives one chills to watch it. It brings home the full sadness, the emotions, which the remake is sadly lacking in, of a poor boy taken from the only person in the world who loves him.
I first read the story in sophomore English near Christmas, and our assignment was to write up our own "christmas memory." My paper was short and sweet: "I don't have one." I was excused from the assignment.
I found the 1966 film version some years later, and it was a very moving experience to watch.
It's unforgivable that the 1966 version isn't restored to full glory on DVD. I'd pay almost anything to see that.
What the Deaf Man Heard (1997)
Possible spoiler
I have to disagree with the comment posted by Lexicon which appears on the main IMDb page.
I found this film to be hilarious and well acted. Given most of the trash that's available for viewing, I had no problem with watching this one with the kids. Of course, there's no real sex, real violence, blood, gore...it's all implied. Even when someone is murdered, there's no filming OF the murder and no bloody body. It IS a Hallmark movie, after all. If you're looking for such, look elsewhere.
But if you're looking for a moving story of a helpless child making the best of a horrible situation, and you like to laugh, then this is 90 minutes well spent.
The only complaint I had with the movie, which was pointed out by one of my boys, was that they didn't spend enough time on Sammy (the "deaf" boy's) childhood character. Having been deaf for the first four years of his life, I'm sure the boy knows what he's talking about.
Trilogy (1969)
May contain spoilers - Christmas Memory 1966
TV's finest hour is a good description of this show, perhaps even an understatement.
I first saw this program when I was in high school, at Christmas, naturally.
Our assignment was then to write up our own Christmas memory, in the style of the show. Writing that essay brought me very close to my English teacher at that time, and also for years to come. The movie itself is a powerful educational tool.
I had this on VHS, new, at one time, but somehow it has disappeared.
It deserves to be credited separately at IMDb, though. Geraldine Page's performance as Sook is masterful, and Donnie Melvin is just what I envisioned a little Truman Capote to look and sound like. Very high on the Kleenex scale. The later remake of this movie doesn't stand a chance against the original!
It's a pity this isn't remastered and restored to DVD by itself.