Posted on 03/13/2005 11:25:13 PM PST by Cableguy
No doubt Morton Kondracke poured his heart into "Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease," a book about the long, lingering illness and eventual tragic death of his wife, Millicent. But as translated into a CBS movie, "Saving Milly," the story becomes strangely dry and emotionless, even when the symptoms worsen and the heroine struggles bravely to survive -- standard cues, in this kind of film, for the audience to haul out the hankies.
The movie, at 9 tomorrow night on Channel 9, stars Madeleine Stowe as the flinty and defiant Milly and Bruce Greenwood, outfitted with the proper pair of oversize glasses, looking and behaving something like the Kondracke known to TV viewers for his appearances -- increasingly bland and conservative, as it happens -- on political chat fests. The film is told in flashbacks as Kondracke addresses some sort of (very patient) committee and tells the story of the romance that began in Chicago in 1966, when Milly Martinez was a campus activist and Morton a cub reporter for the Sun-Times.
Instead of getting us to fall in love with Stowe's Milly, writer Jeff Arch and director Dan Curtis rely on reaction shots of a devoted, moonstruck, utterly ga-ga Kondracke staring and gaping at her in rapt adoration. He seems to be suffering a brain freeze from a Slurpee as much as falling madly in love. It isn't all that madly, though, because just as the romance heats up to the proverbial hot-and-heavy, Kondracke leaves Chicago for a job at the Sun-Times's Washington bureau, seeming not that unhappy when Milly doesn't come along.
Stowe has a difficult assignment that she, frankly, fails to complete: Give us another kinda-kooky, brash-and-bossy independent female who is nevertheless irresistibly adorable. Instead, Milly too often comes off as cranky and self-absorbed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
>>>I can't believe this royal a**hole!
I can. He's a steaming turd. Smokes his socks. Is a typical liberal whazoo aperture that wouldn't know a good thing if it bit him on his smarmy commie/lib arse.
Tom Shales is a fat, repugnant, piece of Liberal garbage.
What a jerk
I honestly don't see the problem. He's reviewing the movie. Just because it's about real people doesn't mean one has to automatically like it. He's not talking about the actions of the real people but how the film portrays them. He's a film reviewer, or something--his writing is as shallow and snarky as always, but I don't see this movie as being off limits to criticism just because we like Kondracke.
Check out this guy's review of the movie...
I have yet to read an article where Tom Shales is falling all over himself in praise over.
A little off topic, but I have to say something. The casting of this film is HILARIOUS. The guy who played Fred Barnes is this tall handsome stud who looks absolutely NOTHING like Fred.
I take that last post back. Tom Shales did praise that hatchet job Reagan movie the same repugnant Liberal scumbags at CBS hyped.
No surprise. He not only looks like Ebert (used to) he has the same lib sensibilities. It amazes me the shallowness of these critics for major media outlets, though I suppose they try to find someone with the most PC whitebread taste.
I'm no expert on movies, but I do know that a true story about dedication and caring between a husband and wife even during difficult times is a worthy message to deliver. I TIVO'd "Saving Milly" and intend to watch it asap.
God bless Mort and his family.
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Do you think this little observation about the Real Kondracke might have colored Shales' viewing of this movie!!!!!
I have also noticed that Mort is sounding more and more like a Zell Miller democrat - which is fine with me, but is probably giving heartburn to any libs that know Mort.
Why all the gratuitous personal snipes in this review?
Move reivew, my white Southern butt!
Look at this TRIPE.
This is a really cynical review.
When I saw Mort on TV prior to the movie release he said it was a personal love story. Of course he wanted to highlight the disease, but it revealed a lot about their life together - like their careers, family, his alcoholism, and his dedication to Milly. Mort says he was a self absorbed SOB before he met her and she changed his life. Now - could I live with a spouse like Milly? No, but she was certainly brave to decide to live on when the time came to make the decision. And Mort was brave too - still is. Mort's faith is really inspiring.
Bump.
But the most annoying thing was how the movie ended. Instead of it ending like I'm sure the book did, where she died in her bed of Parkinson's disease, they had to go with the whole "Million Dollar Baby" thing. She finally convinced Mort to let her starve to death (no feeding tube) and the movie ended on that note. Bah! Then, the words came on the screen that said she actually did not follow through with suicide by starvation but chose to live on for two years to die naturally.
But, what else would one expect from a CBS movie?
Because the review reads like a gratuitous personal snipe? :)
Tom Shales didn't like the movie because if he had wife going through that he would have bailed in a NY second.
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