Kristy McNichol plays real-life Mary Groda-Lewis, who spent four years as a troubled teenager in reform school in the 1960s, soon diagnosed with dyslexia, showing a flair for literature and being chosen to participate in the Upward Bound program, giving delinquent kids a taste of college life. TV-movie covers many years of Mary's life, following her on an arduous journey from drop-out to motherhood to stroke victim to wife to medical student. Unfortunately, Clifford Campion's teleplay is overstuffed with melodrama, which makes the film's first 30mns exhausting to wade through. Director Robert Day isn't able to capture the look of the era due to the financial constraints of the medium, and his overall handling of the material is gummy and warm (with a determined tug at the heartstrings). McNichol, however, gives her usual forthright performance.
Review of Love, Mary
Love, Mary
(1985 TV Movie)
Delinquent, dyslexic young woman's rocky road to redemption...
15 June 2017