Do You Remember Love (1985)
*** (out of 4)
Joanne Woodward picked up her third Emmy win for this TV movie where she plays a poet/teacher who is slowly losing her battle with Alzheimer's disease. Richard Kiley plays her husband who must come to terms with the fact that he doesn't recognize the woman he originally fell in love with. The performances by the two leads are what really makes this film worth seeing as it's screenplay doesn't really have enough working for it to the movie to really succeed but fans of the two stars are going to get plenty here to make the film worth watching. Woodward really shines in her role as she is forced to play all sorts of different emotions and feelings as her character goes through a lot throughout the film. She has to play it bright, quiet and intelligent but then change on a dime to someone more abusive and argumentative. I thought Woodward did a terrific job at not being overly stagy or fake and I found every note of her performance to hit the right mark. She's so believable in the role that you never feel like you're watching an actress but instead you feel as if you're seeing a documentary about someone with the disease. I've read several reviews that seem to overlook Kiley but that's a shame because he's just as impressive. The scene where he finally crashes and loses his cool about having to take care of someone who acts like they're two years old is extremely effective. I think the biggest problem with the film is its screenplay, which doesn't do that good of a job with the supporting characters. I found most of the supporting characters to be extremely poorly written because they're just used as one-dimensional items. We have the son who is staying away because he's scared. We have the mom who just wants to know what's going on. We have the co-worker who is jealous of her success and wants to see her fail. All of this would be fine but the characters just pop up to give speeches or minor melodrama that never really works. Still, the two lead performances are why people are going to be drawn to this film and they're reason alone to watch the film.
*** (out of 4)
Joanne Woodward picked up her third Emmy win for this TV movie where she plays a poet/teacher who is slowly losing her battle with Alzheimer's disease. Richard Kiley plays her husband who must come to terms with the fact that he doesn't recognize the woman he originally fell in love with. The performances by the two leads are what really makes this film worth seeing as it's screenplay doesn't really have enough working for it to the movie to really succeed but fans of the two stars are going to get plenty here to make the film worth watching. Woodward really shines in her role as she is forced to play all sorts of different emotions and feelings as her character goes through a lot throughout the film. She has to play it bright, quiet and intelligent but then change on a dime to someone more abusive and argumentative. I thought Woodward did a terrific job at not being overly stagy or fake and I found every note of her performance to hit the right mark. She's so believable in the role that you never feel like you're watching an actress but instead you feel as if you're seeing a documentary about someone with the disease. I've read several reviews that seem to overlook Kiley but that's a shame because he's just as impressive. The scene where he finally crashes and loses his cool about having to take care of someone who acts like they're two years old is extremely effective. I think the biggest problem with the film is its screenplay, which doesn't do that good of a job with the supporting characters. I found most of the supporting characters to be extremely poorly written because they're just used as one-dimensional items. We have the son who is staying away because he's scared. We have the mom who just wants to know what's going on. We have the co-worker who is jealous of her success and wants to see her fail. All of this would be fine but the characters just pop up to give speeches or minor melodrama that never really works. Still, the two lead performances are why people are going to be drawn to this film and they're reason alone to watch the film.