Unimpressive, dull and sometimes pretensious TV movie about a middle aged woman (Bisset) who discovered that his old time husband (Mancuso) is betraying her with a young secretary; after the discovery, the poor wife goes back to the city where she lives when she was a teenager justo to reopen an old and decayed ballroom. This movie could be a good chance to discuss with more sharpness the anguish, troubles and fantasies of a feminine soul - especially after a marriage breakup - but unfortunately misses the point and is just a routine and unconvincing love story, narrated like a classic and old-fashioned soap opera. I give this a 4 (four).

I am totally in the right age segment for this kind of movie. 40+ and very happy to be convinced that a woman can still be appealing to a 25 year old man. This story could have been great! It had all the right ingredients: Young handsome, fit and energetic man ditches pretty same age girlfriend for a forty something divorcée. But this movie messes the story up completely for one simple reason, Jaqueline Bisset. How on earth are we to believe that John would fall for her? She is supposed to have been in love with his dad at the age of 18, which is twenty something years ago and would therefore be in her forties. But she looks so old! At old older than 45 and more like the 60 odd years, she actually is. Not only does she not look the part, she has apparently lost all ability to act. I dare say the producer could have easily saved her salary and instead have had an extra walk around with a cardboard cut out playing a metallic tape recorder robot voice - and done a better job. She is so stiff and passionless, that I cannot for the love of anything see how anyone would feel the quandary of whether it is love or just sexual attraction. When they kiss, it looks like a kid kissing a grandmother without an ounce of tension or passion. Well she could be his grandmother, so that is probably why. I had to look away during some of the romantic scenes - it was that awkward and inappropriate.

I am so sad they did not make more of this, getting a great mature actress to play the part. It had all the elements to become a favorite, but it failed badly.

Do not watch this, even if you get it for free. It is horrible.

Jacqui Bisset even at 58 still projects a vixen quality that belies her obvious maturity, here she has the opportunity to showcase her age as her asset and integral to the storyline, but ultimately, the plot is thin, the characters and situations clichéd and un-involving. She plays a woman scorned by philandering husband (Mancuso) and elects to take a trip back through memory lane to a place in which she worked briefly some thirty years earlier, and where she had a brief but torrid liaison with a man named Patrick. Patrick has since both married and died, but his son (Mabius) is a tangible reminder of her brief encounter with Patrick (but not her progeny - it's not that kind of movie) and serves to vicariously rekindle the flame she shared with his late father.

It's a little disconcerting watching the two engage in the lovey-dovey dialogue and passionate embraces, the kisses looking anything but intimate. There's this whole 'Danielle Steele' quality to the movie that holds it back from the mature, poignant tale it aims to be, although Bisset at least gives an apparently sincere performance in a complex characterisation that exhibits conflicted emotions and motivations. Despite the fact her character is criticised, ostracised and made to feel 'trashy' by townsfolk concerned for Mabius' character's welfare, Bisset never becomes a tragic figure, retaining dignity even despite the lame dialogue and clichéd situations.

TV movie of mediocre quality, elevated marginally by the star presence of Bisset ought to appeal to those looking for the TV cousin (and predecessor) of "Under the Tuscan Sun", or just those who remain enamoured by the evergreen Bisset.