I was surprised to see that this has only a 5.1 rating, when the people who bothered to write reviews, although stating some complaints, still gave it pretty high ratings (most of the 5 showing now give it an '8')
Whenever I write reviews here, no matter what type of movie, I always state that to me the very MOST important factor in rating a film is, 'Is it made well?' And, quite honestly in this case I feel that it is. Usually, with movies like this that have heavy Dramatic elements, many times I cringe at how overdone and overwrought they usually are. And, I was quite surprised that the acting for the most part actually was pretty good. The main doctor and the boy of course standing out very strongly in their roles. The parents were okay, but fairly average.
Now, this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the movie, and I apologize, but I just hafta say, I was REALLY pining in my heart for way Susan Gibney used to look in her lovely role in STAR TREK: TNG. I mean, to me anyway, she was absolutely stunning! FWIW, I usually don't get too worked up over most actresses. But, WOW! In her role in TNG as Geordi's love interest Dr. Leah Brahms I felt that she was shockingly beautiful! But, alas here in this film... thus the 'pining' part... she didn't look at all the same. She was rail thin and anorexic looking, quite the extreme opposite as she looked in Star Trek. Oh well...
Anyway, back to the movie, sorry... : )
I was honestly impressed by how well the story was told. The primitive soundtrack also really enhanced the mood of the film. I truly felt that, given this basically pretty simple USA Telefilm material, the director did a really good job in putting it together. And, given that I normally don't care very much for the more Dramatic elements, still, I thought that he elicited the best performances out of the actors (I was especially impressed with the boy - Nice and understated. VERY rare with child actors) and I thought that he handled the emotional scenes rather decently rather than overdoing them in an amateurishly heavy-handed way.
At the end (which of course I will not tell you about) I think that the audience feels that the story was told very well and in a satisfying way. A very 'Human' Science Fiction theme, but one told in what I felt was an intriguing and involving way...
Again, a fairly simple story, but despite what some said, the dialog, acting, mood, and pacing are indeed executed very well. Far above average, certainly for a USA Telefilm...
