The Family Man (1979 TV Movie) User Reviews

Preposterous to the point of laughter

[photoe · 6/10 · 7 July 2010]

This movie is a boilerplate Lifetime channel family drama about a married man (Ed Asner) and his affair with a MUCH younger Meredith Baxter Birney.

What makes the movie so outrageous is that Birney falls so hard for ASner, and the shots of the two of them in bed together are highly gag-worthy. Asner does little to woo her except be 'mature and wise'. While I love Asner as an actor, this movie had me pushing the preposterous button so many times, as Asner has to tell the young and extremely beautiful Birney to back off. On occasion, you can almost see a smile cracking across her face. It's all a bit much. This movie is good for being bad and clichéd mostly, but mainly for trying to deliver the idea that someone as hot as Birney would ever compromise herself for an attraction opposite like Asner. Maybe in real life, because he's funny, charming, rich and famous, but he's just some average joe in this movie. Sorry, but she would have to have had some serious daddy issues for her not to see through that forest of gray chest hair, upon which her head is frequently resting.

So frightening I remember it decades later without having seen it again. Rent it for a hoot.

It´s a sad affair

[Daniel-Couri · 19 May 2002]

Eddie, a married mature man (Edward Asner) falls in love with much younger woman (Family Ties´ Meredith Baxter) and they start a passionate romance. But as their relationship develops and they become increasingly close, Eddie gets concerned about the growing crack in his marriage and his neglected wife, ending up without his younger lover. It´s sad to see that their relationship promised so much, they were so in love, and just like that, they broke up. The pressures of society always win. People just can´t accept the fact that two people with an age difference have emotionally the same capacity to love each other, no matter how big is the difference. That´s what happened to Eddie and his lover, and although they loved each other, he decided to remain married with his old wife. Just to keep the status quo. But the movie is worth seeing.

Soggy May-December romance with so-so story

[mrb1980 · 4/10 · 4 January 2023]

The older-man-younger-woman theme gets another go-round in this forgettable TV movie. Ed Asner plays the gruff middle aged guy Eddie who is tired of his marriage and feels unsatisfied. The lovely young Mercedes (Meredith Baxter) enters his life rather accidentally and the two fall in love. Baxter and Asner are probably the most unlikely romantic duo in the history of TV movies.

Eddie and Mercedes carry on their affair until Eddie's wife Maggie (Anne Jackson) expresses her dissatisfaction with being ignored. Will Eddie stay with Maggie or break loose with Mercedes? You may last long enough to find out.

I like Asner and Baxter, but the predictable script lets them down here. The May-December romance angle has been done better many other times, even though the cast is appealing here. You may enjoy "The Family Man" but it really didn't do much for me.

Idiot liberal ed getting a hot number totally ludicrous

[slammer-55875 · 1/10 · 1 June 2018]

Sucks totally a farce he belongs in a gorilla cage