triple8
SPOILERS THROUGHOUT: I don't read much Danielle Steel but had read this book and so when the movie came out I checked it out. This was really good, surprisingly true to the book and a very beautiful and bittersweet story. It was touching, compelling and really well acted. I enjoyed it.Obviously, people who don't like Steel should stay away. But I've now watched this a couple of times and am very impressed with how vividly the performers brought the characters from the book to life in the movie. There isn't really anything lacking in this movie and if one likes the book they will probably like this. The movie is also directed very well and though the music is kind of sappy & syrupy that is to be expected from a movie such as this. It is definitely well above average as the ratings here on IMDb indicate.Go ahead and treat yourself to a viewing of this lovely movie. It's very well done.
TxMike
When a movie starts out with a beautiful young woman sitting next to what seems to be a "perfect" stranger and gentleman, I have become jaded to the point I expect him to turn out to be a very evil man who will cause this young lady all kinds of grief before he dies near the end of the movie. Happily, this is not that kind of story. He really is a "perfect" gentleman, and she turns out to be pretty much a "perfect" woman. A somewhat syrupy romantic story that can be a nice diversion if you are in the mood.SPOILERS FOLLOW. Alex (Rober Urich) finds himself sitting next to a pretty, younger woman Raphaella (Stacy Haidul) on a cross-country flight. He is smitten, tries to strike up a conversation but she politely tells him she would rather be left alone to read her book. In a striking coincidence, he is the son of the author of the book Raphaella is reading. That softens her up a bit. Then, the plane encounters much turbulence while passing a storm, terrified, she holds onto his arm, they talk to take their minds off impending death, she finds out he is divorced with a teenage daughter, he finds out she married at 18 and is content to be a wife and truly loves her very wealthy husband.The exchange information before they part, they later strike up a friendship, which gets more serious as they fall for each other. Her much older husband John (Darren McGavin) has had a stroke and she visits him often. He learns about Raphaella and Alex, and summons Alex to his bedside for a talk. He wants his wife to be happy and tells Alex he must not breathe a word of their conversation, even the fact they met, as long as he is alive. Soon thereafter he kills himself with an overdose.Raphaella is distraught for having been with Alex when her husband was dying, she will not see Alex or return phone calls, and moves to a secret address in Switzerland, a home that had been in her family for some time. Alex manages to locate her from the return address on a rejected letter, travels to see her, but she tells him to go. He does, meantime she discovers and reads the letter her husband left her, and realizing what he wished for her, she goes to the airport, Alex sees her out the window of the moving plane, orders it stopped, and the movie ends with Raphaella running into his arms.I had never seen the actress Stacy Haiduk (Raphaella) before and was impressed with both her natural beauty and her acting. She has not had a role of note since this 1994 movie, perhaps she will get a break. She was 25, and Robert Urich was old enough to be her father. However, her husband in this movie was played by McGavin who was almost 70 and old enough to be her grandfather, so in that sense she was trading for a younger man! This story would seem to say that suicide is OK as long as it is for a noble reason.
dhovens
Oh my god - this movie was just awful!! After a very sentimental start it reached it highlight when a the leading woman first didn't wanted to be found and then just sends her address to the leading man. The only good thing was Holy Marie Combs. She's just lovely but her storyline is as a Disney-movie without a moral. Just tape the pieces with Holy Marie and DELETE the rest!!
