In Sickness and in Health

Mickey (Marg Helgenberger) is a Greenville, Texas coffee shop waitress who is hired to help Anita Mattison (Lesley Ann Warren) who is wheelchair bound from chronic progressive multiple sclerosis. Mickey has an affair with Anita's husband bootmaker Jarrett (Tom Skerritt), and when Anita requires full time hospitalisation, she asks Mickey and Jarrett to live together.

Helgenberger gets a free spirit colourful wardrobe against Anita's plain colours, she wears a long black wig at a market, and at one point has an androgynous look with her red hair worn under a cap accompanied by jeans and braces. Her scenes with Skerritt help her to underplay, she is touching when embarasssed by her loneliness, apologising to Anita, and makes odd noises when she cries at Anita's final suggestion.

The teleplay by Alan Hines and Joyce Eliason has Anita dream of herself fully mobile, whether having sex with Jarrett or playing baseball, which she refuses to call nightmares. However the dialogue is less than inspired, with howlers like `I'm burning up inside for you', `I felt guilty before I was even born', and `I know you love me but the games changed'.

Director Jeff Bleckner shows restraint with the sex scenes between Mickey and Jarrett, and also helps Warren to make a strong impression.

Yeah, I think I went through a box of tissues on this one.

This is a beautiful film about a family ruled by the mother's (Lesley Ann Warren) MS. Her husband (Tom Skerritt) and daughter are devoted to her, but the daughter is growing up and aching to have a life of her own, including college. The daughter has a great deal of guilt because she believes that by being born, she made her mother's MS worse, which her mother assures her is not true, explaining that she was determined to have a child no matter what the consequences.

Finally, it seems to be the best thing for the Warren character to go into a full time care facility. There she meets other people like her whom she finds inspirational and understanding. On the outside, her husband has fallen in love with Marg Hellenberger.

The denouement of this film is very powerful. I won't apologize, but I will say it's probably a total chick flick. All the actors did a wonderful job - Warren is effective, Skerritt is his usual vital self in a very sympathetic role, and Hellenberger is also sympathetic and warm as his love interest. You can't hate or resent anyone in this movie. Very well done and very compelling.