User reviews

Kirstie Alley won an Emmy for her performance in DAVID'S MOTHER, an uncompromising look at a blue-collar, boorish mother, who seems to be at a total loss at how to deal with her autistic son. Alley, cast against type, loses herself in this role of an uneducated, trailer-trash kind of mother who wants to love and help her son but is never really quite sure about what she should be doing for him. The always reliable Stockard Channing is also featured as her snobbish sister and Sam Waterston is charming as a man Alley gets involved with but this is Alley's movie and she forsakes any pretense of glamor to realistically portray an unsympathetic character in a difficult situation who somehow still manages to make us feel for her even though we know that a lot of what this woman does and feels is just wrong. Alley makes the most of a rather unpleasant role and gave us a memorable television experience, light years away from her role as Rebecca Howe on CHEERS.

Some movies that have a very serious message to tell are better then others. Why? The way the message is told makes the biggest difference, and the way it's filmed.

The movie shows a very real issue that affects many people in the world. But the way it showed the message almost comes off a little boring and overloaded. In the film we follow Sally Goodson who is played by the wonderful actress Kristie Alley. The film shows her everyday challenges and how her relationship with her son has affected her life in every way. It shows the hardships, sacrifices and extraordinary love a mother endures to take care of her autistic son. It doesn't sugar coat anything. And I think by not glazing over the truth of how difficult it is and how it can affect a person, along side the hard choices that need to be made, it makes the movie to overbearing for the viewer.

The message was well laid out. It shows the life of a mother who is trying to care for her autistic child in the best way she knows how. It also shows the faults she has made in her life by having flash-backs to the past of her first marriage, and how she has given up on her own life, but instead dedicates all of herself to her son. It shows the imbalance in this woman's life and how she finds that balance. The movie has a simple plot. It's not a family film and its not eye candy either. It's a powerful movie that shows the very real struggles in the lives of people trying to raise an autistic child.

The movie has a great cast and Kristie Alley gave a phenomenal performance. Unfortunately the quality of the film is well below standards. Great message, but too serious/real for my own personal taste.

Dealing with an autistic child, his demand for the family's attention, and their inability to focus their lives on anything other than this child. Realistic rather than sentimental, an unpleasant topic successfully presented with first-rate editing, acting and direction. Kirstie Alley, as the child's harried mom, comes up with a mesmerizing and utterly convincing portrayal.

this is one of the best movies i have EVER seen. not just tv movie. movie period. go to amazon. go to ebay. and buy this movie. its absolutly brilliant. and kirstie alley is indescrible..

kirstie alley plays sally goodson. a lonely,self deprecating woman that has spent her whole life taking..well the last 16 years of her life taking care of her autistic son david. over those years shes let go of things she didnt mean to. her marriage,her life,and even her older daughter all because she wanted to tend to her sons everyday needs. not only because she liked it,but because it made her feel like a whole person. thats something shes never felt before. Her sister played by stockard channing decides that she needs to meet people and get out more so she introduces her to John,played by Sam Waterson. He wants to help her,and love her but shes afraid...shes afraid to love someone and get intimate and she doesnt want anyone to help her take care of david. While this going on a social worker catches up with the fact that david needs to be in a home,or a place to take better care of him that sally is. Theres just so much she can do to help him. Shes trying to prevent this from happening because the last thing she wants is to loose him,she would fall apart..

I cant tell anyone enough about this movie and most importantly about kirstie alley. shes my favorite actress ever and in this movie you really can see what she can do. just coming off of cheers in 1994 when this movie was made she recieved a well deserved emmy. i beg you to see this movie. its amazing.

Finally, a film which portrays autism with some realism. this film describes the challenges of raising a disabled child, how it may affect family relations, and its rewards. David is severely autistic. He has no savant skills (Hollywood's usual obsession with the disorder), think Rain Man; similarly there is no 'miracle cure' offered. For other autism films which are far less accurate and therefore damaging, see: Mercury Rising, Silent Fall, Molly, House of Cards, I am Sam, The Pit. A generally well acted film. Kirstie Alley is excellent. Stockard Channing has her moments, but regularly verges on serious over-acting. Sam Waterson, if not actually autistic himself (surely he is!?) is amazing. Well worth a watch, particularly if only to find an alternative to the inaccurate representations of autism which Hollywood thrives on.

I must confess to a partiality for this type of film and did enjoy this one. However, I found it too much on the negative side and with a too low feelgood factor. I thought that David's "performance" was excellent and extremely realistic ( I am assuming the actor concerned is not autistic in real life ) but I thought that David's mother, as personnified by Kirstie Alley, went a bit over the top. Of course, the situation is difficult to live but one cannot even detect a glimmer of hope in Alley's attitude towards John who was an extremely kind and understanding man and willing to tackle the problem of David. All the mother can do is tell him to get lost ! - it's pushing the negative dramatic element too far in the direction of pessimism. Of course it must be very difficult to bring up a child like David, but one would have thought that John's presence would change things for the better. One saw this very briefly with David learning to operate the VCR but the optimism stops there.

It's all well and good trying to be acutely realistic and doubtless this film corresponds perfectly to real live situations which have been lived. But I think that Cinema is there to make us dream, albeit only a little in some cases, and the viewer needs some "positive elements" to enable him/her to feel good about watching the film. After all, it IS a film and not a real-life documentary.

Basically, one is left with a bitter aftertaste in one's mouth because of Kirstie Alley's boorish, offhand and uncompromising attitude with all those around her. One would have expected this attitude of course to dominate initially but to gradually disappear as the story unfolds throughout the film. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case and whilst there is a minimum of gratitude on the part of Alley towards the John element, one feels that deep down she has not really changed that much and intends to continue as before. Big deal !

So, all in all, good acting ( beautiful actors, John is very handsome and Kirstie Alley, when properly dressed up is pretty sexy ( for me, at least !! ), but an overly negative storyline which could have been improved upon without going too much in the other direction !

Although Kirstie Alley is normally a very good actress, in THIS particular production, I found her to be rude, obnoxious, and a down-right SLOB. She is so bitter that she relies on sarcasm to get her through life. Her son is Autistic, she's a Pig....how's that for a summary?

Her sister (portrayed by the ALWAYS-wonderful Stockard Channing) decides it's time for Kirstie Alley's character to meet a man. This is depsite the fact that her home is a pig-sty and she looks like a bag lady...

She is introduced to a character named John Nils, portrayed by the EVEN MORE ALWAYS WONDERFUL Sam Waterston. He is sweet, gentle, kind, and bloody beautiful. He tries his heart out to help her change her attitude towards her handicapped child, and give him a chance to get some treatment, as well as enter a program for children with Autism. Of course this enrages Ms. Alley's character. However, after bedding down with Mr. Nils (Mr. Waterston looks divine in a black velour bathrobe), she realizes he's right about her kid - but wrong for her....naaaah. She doesn't love him enough to stay with him. And she decides to tell him this in his store. What a TERRIFIC CHICK this is...of course, he loves HER, so you can see the pain in his eyes when she tells him, for all intents and purposes, that it's over between them...

In my personal opinion, I was kinda hoping they'd commit HER along with her poor son. She was simply boorish, and of course wasn't helping the poor boy anyway.

I came away from this with a "yecch" expression. If you're going to put someone opposite the ever kind/generous/loving/extremely talented Sam Waterston, let it NOT be Kirstie Alley. If only they'd allowed Stockard Channing to play the part, the whole movie would've had much more class to it..

I am watching this film at the moment on channel 61, At the point where Sally and John have the row about her leaving and not telling him, the actor changes and so does his clothes! Suddenly a much younger man is in place of John wearing a white cable knit sweater. This happens three times and then Sally becomes a younger version of herself, different hairstyle, makeup and clothes!

I am puzzled as to how this film, that has received such great reviews and nominations for the acting, can be so badly edited. I have found this so distracting I had to break away and look the film up to see if anyone else has noticed this.

Otherwise, it is a good film but I am being penickity perhaps.