Reunion (1994) (TV)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Lee Grant

Writers (WGA):

Linda Gray Sexton (book)
Ronald Bass (teleplay) ...

Release Date:

11 December 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Attempted Child Murder | Death Of Child | Based On Novel | Based On Book

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Marlo Thomas	...	Jessie Yates
Peter Strauss	...	Sam Yates
Frances Sternhagen	...	Tobie Yates
Courtney Chase	...	Meggie Yates
Matthew Kelly	...	Jamie Yates
Leelee Sobieski	...	Anna Yates
Victor Slezak
Susan Kellermann
Stanley Anderson
Norris Domingue	...	Store Clerk
Charly Simonyl	...	Anna, 6 years old

Runtime:

USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:15

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jessie is going upstairs to the attic towards the end of the movie, she is wearing a long white nightgown. A close-up shows her wearing the blue bathrobe that she wears a lot during the movie. The next shot shows her in the white nightgown again.

a good story, ruined.

Reunion is one of those movies where the words "I'm back" are supposed to hold many deep and profound meanings in addition to the literal one. However, all it does is make you laugh at it's absurdity and choke up the popcorn you were dozing off on.

What could have been a touching story about motherhood and family, or a moving film exploring the pain of loss and how it was dealt with, or a smart psychological thriller or even a little horror flick a la Pet Sematary - has been rendered utterly pointless and horribly boring due to an inane amateurish school-playish script.

Though the lead actress must be given due credit for her face distorting performance as the distraught mother, it is hardly her fault that her melodrama could not live up to a script that has her babbling motherly nothings to her kids (both dead and alive) throughout the movie.

Other actors need no special mention for guest appearances and cardboard props could probably have done better justice to their presence on screen.

The kids, however, being an integral part of the movie, ruin it even further beyond belief with their atrocious acting skills coupled with the equally wooden lines they had to mouth.

But though the scriptwriter has stolen from the story any glimmer of verisimilitude and turned it into an over the top tale with below average dialogues, could not the director have salvaged the movie with some amount of respectability to the intelligence of the unfortunate viewers? Well, he does try. At times the scenes between Mother and child, shot in bluish dark soft light, attempt to evoke tenderness in the hearts of the sleeping viewers. But then the very next instant he scares you out of your reverie with gimmicks straight out of horror movie textbooks. And the next moment the viewer is treated to spooky music pasted on scenes depicting the mother being affectionate to her children.

And though the scenes by themselves might be half effective as to what the director hopes to achieve in the viewer's mind, they fail to come together as one complete movie. The viewer is left feeling sympathetic for the child, then spooked out by him, then feeling sorry for the mother, then suspicious about her, and so on and so forth. By the end of the movie the viewer has no idea what he just watched.

Of course, the director must also be lauded for his heavy use of symbolism throughout the movie, which the idle viewer is compelled to notice (and often invent) for lack of anything truly interesting in the film. For example, breathing life into the child (literally!), macadamia nuts (to explain that she is going a little nutty now), gingerbread-man (the little one who has run away)... and many more (don't even get me started on the horses!). If you happen to be subject to this movie some day, I suggest you entertain yourself by spotting some more. Assuredly, they are mostly unintended anyway.

And to cap it all on a good note, the lights are well used, the snow looks nice, so do the animals. This won't hurt your eyes. Only your intelligence.