Jean Smart is a tower of strength as married mother of two who follows a hunch one afternoon and tracks her husband of 20 years to a hotel room--where he's cozily wrapped in a white terrycloth robe and making chit-chat with a strapping man in a matching towel. His secret's out! Of course this is all cliché by now, and some viewers will bemoan that fact and give up right there, but the TV film "A Change of Heart" addresses these issues with a lot of forceful emotion and realistic exchanges. There's hurt, and anger, and tears, but it doesn't sink into sap. The male lover isn't given any dimensions--and seems to have a great home of his own, so why were they meeting in a hotel?--and the teenagers involved are tiresomely belligerent, but Jean Smart is the acting centerpiece here and she does the movie a world of good. Her speech to the board of directors where she and her husband work is flawlessly handled, and her bravura spirit at the end will give a lot of viewers hope. A good actress can do that.
