Love Lessons

Adaptation for TV of Jill Gascoine's book "Just Like a Woman" concerns 50-year-old businesswoman, on the verge of retiring with her husband on his boat, who learns she's pregnant, which puts the couple's plans on hold and causes the husband in particular to reexamine his life. Patty Duke (looking and acting a lot older than 50) has some choice moments in her portrayal of Sunny, a feisty middle-ager determined to have a final fling at motherhood, yet we don't get any sense of her priorities other than having this baby (she's either pinched or drawn in anger--or, worse, a shoulder for everyone else to cry on). Husband Ronny Cox has the more complex character, but his doubts and insecurities--very relatable human qualities--are treated almost villainously. The narrative jumps around, opening up new wounds and bringing in new characters, but skimps on emotion. ** from ****