"The Other Woman" is actually a misnomer for a film about the bonding of two women. When Tessa learns that she is terminally ill with cancer, she invites Carolyn, her husband's new wife, along for a trip with her two daughters to visit her father in Wyoming. The drama that unfolds is how the two women are brought together in a common feeling of love.

The scripting was outstanding. The early dialogue in which the repartee between Tessa and Carolyn was venomous as they resented one another gives way to the thoughtful words implicit in a newly found friendship. The actresses were exceptional, as well as the secondary roles of the husband and grandpa.

The film values were superb with shots of the breath-taking landscape of Arizona on the way to Wyoming. The film scoring supported the emotional dimension of the new connection being formed with the two daughters and Carolyn. By the midpoint, the audience recognized that this was a major tearjerker.

The film retained a simplicity of form, relying on moments of quiet intensity along with reflections on life and death. Perhaps unwittingly, the filmmakers memorialized a topic that seems to be in decline a quarter century after this movie was made: the importance of human decency and family values.

Three years later Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon plays the main roles in a remake called "Stepmon".

Ed Harris acts in that movie as well.

It is a little strange, a TV movie before a Blockbuster.

I prefer the movie from 1995.

"Stepmon" is only a performance to show us two of the female big cheeses of Hollywood.

The way this film starts out, you would swear that we're in for murder and mayhem. James Read has divorced Tessa (Jill Eikenberry). The marriage produced 2 children. He has wed Laura Leighton, a young sexy model. Tessa is fuming and you think something is going to happen. Something happens all right. Tessa is diagnosed with terminal cancer and the film depicts the relationship that she builds with Leighton, the latter who shall take care of her children.

The film shows the coming of maturity of the Leighton character. She certainly rises to the occasion.

The last part of the film falters somewhat as it becomes preachy with the inevitable dialogue.

Nevertheless, the performances are quite good, especially those of Eikenberry and Leighton.

Lloyd Bridges gives a memorable but brief performance as the father who really never understood Tessa and now has to come to grips with what is occurring.