Midwives

Despite an Oscar win for COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER and five other nominations, I still feel Sissy Spacek is one of the more underappreciated acting powerhouses in modern film. She is rarely if ever less than excellent, and this riveting and thought-provoking TV movie is no exception. I am not overly familiar with midwifery, and it's one of the few topics about which I have no particular opinion, but this film piqued my interest enough to consider doing a little research to gather more information. This is one of those movies I would love to watch with a group and discuss afterwards. I won't give anything away about what verdict is rendered, but it really left me in a moral and emotional quandary - and there are very few films I've seen recently that have made me soul search and really think hard about a subject this much. On a much more superficial level, it gave me such cinematic joy to see a reunion, however brief, of Spacek and Piper Laurie here. They, of course, were both Oscar nominated for the best horror film of the 70s - CARRIE. This is an exceedingly well-made project that reminds us that all TV movies are not Hallmark drivel and Lifetime sentimentality.

I read the book "Midwives" and because of that, I was curious to see the film. And I can't say that I'm disappointed. The film's strength is the solid and very good acting achievements. Especially Sissy Spacek is great in the lead role as Sibyl Danforth. She gets steady support from Peter Coyote, Alison Pill as well as Terry Kinney. The script and the directing is nothing outstanding, but it is without a doubt stable. While I did enjoy the film, I, at the same time, also got a feeling that it was rushed. It felt as though every scene was just a quick touch on something, and then it was over to something else. But on the whole, this film is worth seeing. It does deal with an interesting subject and it comes with a twist in the end. For a TV-film, it's well-made. I also recommend you to read the book.

It really is an excellent movie, no there is no car chase scene or anything like that so move on if you need that in a movie.

But I like story driven movies and I really thought it was a very entertaining movie.

The brakes fail on a dilapidated old bus full of schoolkids, forcing the driver to crash it, fortunately without any injuries to anyone - but the driver is held to account.

On a mountain hike a fourteen year old dare-devil falls down a small cliff and breaks a knee - the group's guide is held to account.

Far-fetched? No: these things have happened to me in my working life. And when I think of all the unforeseen complications which befall surgeons carrying out risky operations on their patients, for example, one can easily see that many people are in jobs where when something goes wrong, he or she can frequently become the scapegoat.

In `Midwives' Sissy Spacek plays out the part of a midwife who has the bad luck of having the young mother dying as she is trying to bring a baby into this world. Ms. Spacek is convincing, as much so as in any other of her films I have seen her in. She has come a long way since `Carrie' when she was just 27 years old, or her good interpretation in `Missing' exactly 20 years ago. In `Midwives' we see a mature Ms. Spacek proving she is a real actress, as this is indeed a difficult part, requiring much attention so as to make her rôle of midwife be realistic. How fortunate she was to have a very understanding and clear-headed fourteen year old daughter! Usually girls at such an age (in or out of films) are rather selfish bad-mannered little dears ...

Without being anything brilliant, `Midwives' is worth a watch, as besides being a thought-provoking story, Sissy Spacek offers an intelligent performance and helps keep the rest of the cast on course.