I picked up a used copy of this film, which is no longer in print, because I have always liked Colleen Dewhurst. She can really do no wrong as an actress and you get the sense that she is elevating Baby Comes Home to a level it would not reach with a lesser talent playing the lead.
As the previous review states, Dewhurst's character is Anna Kramer, a woman in her late 40s who has just had a baby. She was apparently unprepared for the extent to which this event would turn her life on end. Her behaviour soon has her husband, mother and grown children baffled. Previously a happy, self-assured person, Anna turns into a near agoraphobic, literally getting lightheaded at the thought of leaving the house. She is suddenly terrified of getting older, confesses to a friend that she is embarrassed of her body and shuns intimacy with her frustrated husband Michael.
Anna's mother Serena (well-played by Mildred Dunnock) does seem to have a handle on what is eating at Anna, but the rest of the family is without a clue. Stiff and reserved Serena does not really embrace her daughter's warm and affectionate nature or understand devotion to her family. Thus, there is some underlying resentment between the two and Serena does not know how to effectively reach Anna.
Michael appears to simultaneously love and resent the new baby. In one strange scene, he kisses and cuddles her while telling her that they are rivals for Mom's attention. He pressures his wife to stop breastfeeding, even though it is something she clearly feels strongly about doing. Throughout much of the film, it looks like he is mostly thinking about how he is not getting enough attention, instead of, "What is wrong with my wife and how can I help her?" Warren Oates does well with the part, but Michael is not an entirely sympathetic character.
The grown children are equally self-absorbed. The youngest, Jason, who is in his last year of secondary school, is in his own depression because of his low standardised test scores. One gets the sense that the normally watchful eye of his mother would have caught this, had she not been going through her own struggles. The middle son, Franklin, is the most sensitive to Anna's issues, but is too busy avoiding his elder sister Elizabeth to be of much help. Elizabeth is busy working at her great job, dealing with her needy husband and hounding Franklin about his lack of employment.
Eventually, it is the seriousness of Jason's (and his best friend's) situation that brings Anna back to reality, so she can figure out how to balance the elements of her old life with the inevitable changes brought about by having a baby at that point in her life. Colleen Dewhurst gives the character more layers and depth than the cardboard cut-out that she could have been, given some of the trite dialogue.
As a whole, though, it was interesting and entertaining. Unfortunately, a made-for-TV film such as this one would never be made these days in the USA. Unless it is about sex and stars young and beautiful people, they do not think anyone will be interested.
