TxMike
I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies.I became a Christina Applegate fan years ago when she was the ditzy Kelly Bundy on the "Married With Children" TV series. I have seen her in several things since then and always enjoy her roles.Here she is Dr. Suzanne Bedford but as a relatively young 30-something has an unexpected heart attack. With surgery she is fine but the threat of another causes her to abandon her big city practice and buy a small town practice on an island north of Boston.There she meets Johnathon Schaech as college graduate Matt Harrison who writes, as yet unpublished, so he makes ends meet as a handyman on the island. He and Suzanne hit it off, he proposes, and against medical advice she has a baby.But there is another women in Matt's life. It is Kathleen Rose Perkins as publishing house editor Kate Wilkinson. She and Matt have a good chemistry also, but right when things seem to be going great he tells her "I can't do this" and he goes away, out of her life.But the story is a lot more complex than that, and overall makes an interesting and enjoyable 90-minute movie that plays like a TV movie. SPOILERS: The two women in Matt's life were consecutive, but the stories are shown as parallel events. After the baby was growing Suzanne got in the car with their son, she had another heart attack while driving, went off a bridge, the baby didn't survive either. So Matt's new book, which Kathleen is editing with him, was written after he had become single again. He was falling in love with Kathleen but still had memories of his dead wife and son, hadn't worked them out yet. But he gave her a diary to read, it was written by Suzanne, and then she understood. Eventually they got back together, married, and as the movie ends we see a family portrait of Matt, Kathleen, and the young daughter.
Astraether
I know I'm in the minority here, after having read several glowing reviews of this movie, but I felt the need to chime in nonetheless. Perhaps I'm not the right sort of audience for this kind of movie, since I usually find these rom-drams (romantic dramas) horribly saccharine and cheezy, and this one was no different -- in fact, moreso than most.First off, let me just get one little tidbit off my chest, and here's a warning: SPOILERS BELOW! Why the heck would someone, knowing that their wife has a heart condition that makes her susceptible to heart attacks, plan a surprise party, of all things, for her birthday?!? Am I the only one who finds this ludicrous? Did the writers never stop to think, oh, maybe that's not a good idea? I haven't read the book, so I don't know if that part was in it or not, but come ON! It made me conjure up my own little sub-plot, where hubby Matt was actually trying to kill his wife, and considering how everything turned out in the end, where he gets his convenient little ready-made family to replace the former one, well, it's not such a bad plot, and maybe it would've made a better movie.MORE SPOILERS!! I knew the wife Suzanne was going to die from the get-go. I mean, come on, they establish a delicate heart condition, and they show the new girlfriend reading her diary, and I've seen enough of these types of movies to know the formula, so it was just a matter of figuring out when and how. That's really the main reason I finished watching this ridiculous drama.But of course they have to throw in some moralizing along the way: Suzanne shouldn't have a baby, it's really dangerous for her, she's a doctor and knows the risks -- but rather than do something sensible like adopt a child who could use a good home, she goes ahead and has a baby anyway, because isn't that a woman's true function in life? To be a mother? And, you know, abortion is bad -- even when a pregnancy presents a serious risk to a woman's health, she should just go ahead and have the baby anyway, because then her life is fulfilled! YET MORE SPOILERS: Oh, and speaking of abortions, the little twist where Kate gets pregnant presented another moral conundrum. Apparently it's okay for a woman who's casually dating some guy (which is how the movie seemed to present their relationship) to just skip a pill or two, on the off-chance that it "might work out" with her boyfriend. Seriously, that's what Kate tells her doctor when he asks why she missed her pill. I guess she just decided to take it upon herself to maybe get pregnant, without ever bothering to even discuss that with her boyfriend! But god forbid she should get an abortion, because that's just wrong! No, she too should just go ahead with this unplanned pregnancy, because she's a woman, and women are just baby-makers, and it'll all work out in the end! Ugh. I think that one word sums up my thoughts on this movie as a whole. Everything about it was designed to be a tear-jerker, and judging from the rest of the reviews, I guess it worked, but I was left at the end feeling annoyed and preached to. Like I said earlier, if you want to watch it from the perspective of this would-be writer plotting to kill his rich doctor wife so he can move into her nice big house, well, that might make a more interesting storyline than this ridiculous melodramatic twaddle.
Jessica-Rose
Christina Applegate had an amazing performance in this movie, the writing was incredible and she brought the character to life. I was in tears at the end of the movie, and even a couple times somewhere in the middle. Definitely hope it comes to video! I was impressed with the movie as I usually do not like made for TV movies, this one however moved me so much that I am running out first thing tomorrow morning to purchase the novel, as in TV land they had to edit out parts to fit the story line, but of the movie was that good with pieces missing, it must be extraordinary in its entirety.
