Heart of the Country

I saw this mini series on TV back in '87, and it was really good. Christian Bale was excellent as the spoiled brat. It came prior to Empire of the Sun.

This is a hard story about an upper middle class woman whose husband one day walks out on her, without any warning at all. The poor house wife is left with the house, two spoiled kids and absolutely no money and no car. Before her husband left with his mistress, he had emptied all bank accounts. Her children, even though they hate their father for leaving them, turn their anger on their mother, blaming her for not being able to keep her husband. There is one scene where Bale asks his mother for a new school bag, since he has played with his old one until it broke. His mother tells him to use a plastic bag from the super market to carry his school books, because she simply can't afford to buy him a new one. He then explodes in a spoiled-child-rant about how useless she is, who can't understand how embarrassing it will be for him to turn up at school without a proper bag. He basically blames the whole situation on her.

I'd really like to watch it again now that my perspective has changed from the child's point of view to the middle class mother's point of view, but it seems to be as good as impossible to get hold of it.