Our Son, the Matchmaker

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.

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 appreciated the reality of the movie. My mother had a similar situation and was sent to live with her aunt. Outcomes are different but the love for child and care for one another the same. I think the actors chosen did a nice job portraying the story.

Did anyone else notice in the opening credits that Ellen Burstyn's last name is spelled Barstyn?? I had to double check, but it is! Is this a goof, or is there a legit reason? I don't know if it's spelled wrong in the closing credits because of how Hallmark advertised the next movie over them, but I'm curious if anyone else noticed this.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It was nice watching Julie and Steve fall in love all over again. It was kind of cold the way she dropped Kevin, but I guess it's always best to follow your heart.

I agree with another poster about being more interested in Julie and Steve's relationship as teens than as adults. They could've centered the entire movie on that! But I am partial to that time period, anyway. Such a simpler time, but yet still apparently filled with scandal...

I also enjoyed Julie telling her mother she was done and walking away. So many times, these types of movies show women getting bullied by overbearing mothers and the women taking the abuse forever. I was glad Julie moved on, even if it meant leaving her mother behind.

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