Reckless: The Sequel

Reckless: The Movie picks up a year after Anna leaves Richard for Owen. Anna has divorced him, and has accepted Owen's proposal of marriage. Richard, not meant to know, finds out and does everything in his power to stop them, including hiring Owen's ex-fiancee as the new registrar. (It turns out that Owen called off that wedding five months before he met Anna.) Complicating matters for Richard is that his parents have been invited to the wedding by Anna. Anna's thorn is her younger sister Barbara, who feels that she divorced Richard too quickly and that she should wait. Francesca Annis is shining again as Anna, a woman still torn, although more subtly this time, by two men: one she despises, one she adores. Robson Green, while having only slightly less to do in this movie than he did in the series, is wondrous, and still smolders on screen; his performance is full of fire and passion. Together, Annis and Green still make for a sparkling, combustible couple. Michael Kitchen is terrifically rotten as the smug bastard who will stop at nothing to keep Anna and Owen apart; one genuinely begins to despise him almost as much as Anna. Kudos also go to Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates as Richard's parents, David Bradley as Owen's father, and Conor Mullen as John McGinley, also torn between his career aspirations dependent on Richard and his friendship and loyalty to Owen.

If you can, buy this, rent this or tape this, because you will find yourself enveloped in a fantastic story with sharp wit, cutting humor and gifted actors and acting.

I found this to be both a beautiful love story but also with added benefits of humor and a touch of sorrow. I cried many times throughout this 4 part video and have owned it for many years now. I regularly re-watch it at least twice a year just to remind me that some people are lucky enough to experience this kind of love.

I love my fiancé when I was 40, he drowned in a boating accident. I loved him dearly and have never been in love again since. I am now 67 but do not regret my love for him. This is an excellent video, isn't sappy, Francesca Annis is such a beauty and Robson Green was such a charmer, just love it. The English do know how to put on a romance video.

I love Robson Green and Michael Kitchen. I've never been very fond of Francesca Annis' work, though. She was very good in "Parnell and the Englishwoman". At the end of "Reckless", we have the lovers together and love conquers all even if Richard doesn't like it.

Michael Kitchen is so at ease as Richard and Robson Green is so strong and confident as Owen. The only performance I had trouble with was Annis'. Maybe the character was meant to be an adult scatter brain going through the change of life, but all I saw was a pathetic woman who wanted to live her life over with her doctor husband. She was just replacing Richard with Owen. The character or actress was grating on my nerves. Personally, if I were a man and Anna had done those things to me, I would have chucked her out the door ages ago. The most moving scene is at the end. And yes, I cried. There is just something about a man like Michael Kitchen crying that grabs me in the throat.

I guess if you are a completely maniacal romantic you might enjoy Reckless and then the Sequel right after the other. I usually just watch the first one. All wonderful drama and romance is in the first movie. The sequel was just, in my opinion, completely unnecessary.

"Reckless: The Sequel" takes place one year after "Reckless." Anna and Owen are living together, and before the film starts, Owen has proposed. When the movie begins, Anna is getting ready for work. As she's leaving, she says, "Yes." Owen is thrilled.

Richard isn't supposed to know but he finds out and tries to stop them. One way he does that is to hire Owen's ex-fiancée to work in the hospital. She and Owen had broken up some months before he even met Anna.

The movie manages to still be a cliffhanger. From one minute to the next, you don't know whether or not Anna and Owen are going to get married, what with parental and sibling interference, not to mention Richard squeezing himself into the situation.

The beautiful Francesca Annis is excellent as Anna, and one can really understand why both Richard and Owen are so desperate to be with her. You can easily see a younger man finding her irresistible.

Sometimes I find older woman-younger man casting not very good (for instance, Linda Grey and Christopher Atkins in Dallas). Whomever does the casting chooses someone too boyish for an older woman. Well, Robson Green is perfect -- what woman of any age wouldn't want him? He's delightful in this -- passionate, intense, sexy, and sincere. The two make a great couple. You have to love Michael Kitchen as the manipulative ex. He's hateful, which means he's doing his job well.

The rest of the cast shines: Geoffrey Palmer, Pauline Yates playing Richard's parents, David Bradley, Owen's father, Conor Mullen as John McGinley, and the versatile Julian Rhind-Tutt, who is hilarious as the womanizing (or wishes he could be) Danny.

Very sweet film and a nice wrap-up to the whole Reckless miniseries.

Like all Masterpiece Theater shows, it is very well done in every way except Episode Three, which I felt became boringly tedious and which could really have been omitted and the lovers getting together should have ended Episode Two. As for production, it was excellent except for the annoying intrusive solo guitar plonking away in scenes that should really have had a full orchestra with a lush score to accentuate the emotional mood. At the risk of sounding cute, I might add that it could easily have been titled "Heterosexual Hell" which is all it was, really... on and on and on....