A Brand New Life

This movie of the week is a movie I never expected to see on DVD. I am SO HAPPY that it has finally been released. You feel as though you are living through the characters eyes and feel what they feel. It feels very real when you see the struggle of this middle aged couple trying to decide if they want a child after so many years of marriage. Very heart felt and sincere movie. Very fast paced movie and it tugs at your heart. WONDERFUL!!! I would shout it from the roof tops for everyone to get this wonderful movie! I can only hope that other movies of the week will find themselves on DVD shorty just like THIS GEM OF A FILM! Unforgettable and worth getting.

I just got to see this movie again, now on DVD. I had forgotten what a sweet movie it is. Of course the subject of a 40 year old woman having her first child seems like nothing new today, but back then it was controversial to most. It brought back such fond memories of nights when Isat around watching the 'Movie of the Week'. Those films of the 70's were great! I have a long list of films from this genre that have stayed with me the last 30 years or so. Most of them produced by AAron Spelling, they were just the best! I only wish someone could get a collection together and put them in a DVD boxed set. These TV movies seem to be lost in the studio archives. If anyone is listening... there are a lot of people who would like to see them again, so get them out on DVD!!

Forty year-old working woman, happy in her marriage and excited by her job as assistant manager at the local opera house, finds out she's pregnant for the first time. Cloris Leachman won an Emmy for her solid work in this sympathetic TV-made drama, one that strives to teach us something while stirring our maternal or paternal sides. Both Cloris' best friend and her elderly mother try talking her out of having the child--seemingly just so writers Peggy Chantler Dick and Jerome Kass can bring up the abortion issue--while husband Martin Balsam vacillates between nervous anticipation and fear. The obligatory scenes are trotted out: the natural childbirth class (complete with labor film), the friendly young woman whose infant is stillborn, the office baby shower, etc. Leachman frets, beams, cries, giggles and, most amusingly, worries about her toenails when she goes into labor. The picture isn't much, with all that angst obliterated by the upbeat slide-show finale, but it's well-enough done for '70s television.

A 10-star rating goes out to "A Brand New Life," the Emmy Winning, Made-For-TV movie based on the events surrounding a middle-aged couple who discover they will soon have a child.

One cannot watch this film without coming away with a genuine respect for the characters involved. Of course, Cloris Leachman, who won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role," is astounding as the middle-aged mother-to-be. Martin Balsam, who plays her husband, is equally excellent in his role. The sets, story-line and musical arrangements provide interest and feeling for the characters involved.

A nod goes out to Karen Philipp, who received a TV Guide write-up entitled "Expertly Played By Karen Philipp" for her role as "Sarah White." Former vocalist for Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, "A Brand New Life" proves that Karen has more than a way with song. She is an excellent actor as well. The depth with which she handles this role is astounding. "Well done" would hardly describe the supporting role she plays in this wonderful, emotional film.

All in all, "A Brand New Life" leaves you with a feeling that you have lived through this experience with the characters involved -- you literally become lost in the story -- the mark of a well-made film.

From the standpoint of quality, you can't get much better than "A Brand New Life." The story flows, the actors breathe life into the characters portrayed. This is what middle-aged couples experience on learning they are to become parents. The film is so well done, so well directed and moves so quickly, you feel a genuine sense of care and concern for those involved.

Do yourself and favor and check out "A Brand New Life." If anything, you will gain a new respect for the challenges faced by middle-aged people on the verge of parenthood. What's more, you'll feel good for having done so.

In the flavor of Never Too Late, Cloris Leachman stars as a forty-year-old woman who finds out she's pregnant for the first time. She and her husband, Martin Balsam, had tried for children early on in their marriage, but they never conceived. After eighteen years, they have become set in their ways. They have risen high in their careers, lived in a singles-only high-rise apartment, and grown used to living for themselves from day to day. The pregnancy was an accident, and Cloris isn't sure she's ready for a brand new life.

This movie has a definite message to it, and I would argue that Jerome Kass's teleplay was deliberately manipulative. When Cloris speaks to a doctor about potentially getting an abortion, he explains that he'll do the operation should she decide she wants it. He's absolutely pro-choice for women who feel that's best for their lifestyle, "but I don't think you're one of those women," he says. Cloris seeks advice from several others, including close friend Marge Redmond, her mother Mildred Dunnock, and her boss Wilfrid Hyde-White. Everyone either advises her to have the baby, or talks about how awful motherhood is that via reverse-psychology, she thinks they're wrong and terrible people. Like I said, this is definitely an anti-abortion movie. Plus, Martin is gung-ho about being a father; it's very cute. Is she really going to go against her husband?

If you can get over the "pro-choice in theory, but not in my backyard" theme, this is a very sweet movie. Cloris and Martin have a cute chemistry together, and there's one particular scene (no spoilers here) towards the end that is so touching, it brought a lump to my cynical throat.