Our Son, the Matchmaker

And by coincidence I was originally from Indiana. I had a somewhat similar circumstance when I was a teen, and there was a guy back then I should have married and I didn't. I had a mother like the woman in this movie too. This movie shows how life's regrets can turn out. That is a good lesson to learn. It is a good TV movie. Nothing to be ashamed of. Even my husband was interested. Actors were good, especially Anne Jillian and Ellen Burstyn as the formidable mother who forces her teen to give up her baby. Movies do not always have to be about enormously serious or horrible subjects to have a good message! Consider this movie to be a slightly better than average made for TV movie with a subject that is credible to those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s, when an unmarried teen was shunned more than you younger people can believe.

However, the ladies of all ages will lap it up, no doubt; at least the opposite sex understand what it is to be a mother, and most of us men try to fathom out what it is to be a father. Whether changing nappies is not at all my favourite occupation and trying to get those bottled baby-foodstuffs into errant toothless mouths must rank very high on household duties preferably left to its mother, has absolutely nothing to do with the matter.

Some good interpretations here, and a good story idea; the handling of the matter, limited to rather scanty TV-production concepts, gives the film a rather over-mellowy taste with not much new to offer. An insipid way of delivering the goods, and in the end the outcome is so forseeable during the last 20 minutes or so, even my wife dozed off, and I was jumping up to the computer to get the on-line scoring in the Barcelona-Deportivo match, hoping the away team would do something rather good. They did. This film did not.

Better by far is Mike Leigh's magnificent "Secrets and Lies" (qv) which touches on the same subject matter, but with Brenda Blethyn playing a far superior part.

I too am one of those to whom God gave a second chance to marry my high school love. It took Julie and Steve 28 years. It took me 38 years, but I am a slow learner in all of life's most important lessons. We parted when we were both 18, and then were married by my brother when we were both 55. We are now age 70, and thank God every day that we have the chance to grow old together. Ironically, my eldest son is the only one of our children (three each0 that supports us now. And this child truly considers my wife as his mother in every way except by birth, and he is so very much like Scott Adams. My wife cannot view this movie with me. It hits too close to home for her. I just sit there and sob all the way through it. I've seen the movie 6 times, and I cried just as hard the 6th time as I did the first time. But it is a good cry. A catharsis. I can't tell you how grateful I am to all those who made this movie. It told the world that there is always hope. It is never too late.

I really enjoyed watching this. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 5/16/21.

http://people.com/archive/our-son-the-matchmaker-vol-36-no-8/

This is a true story, as seen in the above link to the People Magazine article regarding this story.

It is a heart-felt story and a true one. My favorite kind.

The stories of young mothers being forced into adoptions that were "closed or private" in prior decades are many. Many children are still wondering where their biological parents are.