The majority of these Lifetime "Made for TV" movies can be placed into two broad categories, for those involving the trials and tribulations of the adult lead(s): the actor/actress is menaced by somebody or some evil organization or group, and the story reveals these, usually in multiple crises at every turn, until resolved one way or another in the last 5 or 10 minutes; or, the story has the hero, or heroine (usually the latter) duped by a spouse, lover, or someone else who appears on the scene. In these instances, sometimes with murder or physical harm threatened during the proceedings, sometimes not, again the crises are resolved in the last minutes of the story. There is another aspect to these movies: you can usually see the big "revelation" coming, occasionally not. Here the former is the case.
In this movie, Molly Ringwald has a bit more impressive "large screen resumé" than most of the female leads. And in this story, Molly is not threatened physically, but you know that this man who entered her life is not simply destined at the conclusion to begin visiting real estate brokers with her, to find a vine-covered cottage with a picket fence.
Still, the actors are engaging, and this movie rates a 6 or 7 (mark it the higher). Depending on you other alternatives for an afternoon or evening, if you don't have an alternative program on t.v., or other activity, within the 8 - 10 range, give it a look.
Plot summary
When a man, beaten and bloody, stumbles into the law office of Charlotte St. John, she discovers that he has contracted amnesia. She takes him in as a guest, hoping that his memory will recover as his wounds heal. As time moves on, Charlotte finds herself more and more attracted to this kind, handsome stranger, who she names Gabriel. When it turns out that he sustained his injuries after saving a woman's life, turning him into a reluctant local hero, she can't help but fall in love. But everything changes for Charlotte when Gabriel's wife arrives, claiming that his real name is Jay. A disappointed Charlotte keeps in touch with Jay, though he still doesn't remember a thing, and they can't help but confess that they still have feelings for one another. But when ANOTHER woman comes forward, claiming to be Jay's wife as well, he's put on trial for bigamy, and the community turns against him. Believing in the man she fell in love with, Charlotte makes the decision to defend Jay in court, to put her personal feelings aside, go against public opinion, and do what she feels is right. But all is not as it seems, and Charlotte may find that, when it comes to her mystery man, doing the right thing isn't always as easy as expected.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Worth viewing, if you don't have an 8* to 10* alternative.
Molly Looked Great
Have not seen Molly Ringwald,(Charlotte) in a very long time and enjoyed seeing her large brown eyes and the sparkle she always had with her personality and those expressions on her face. Charlotte plays a lawyer who has a very bad time trying to find her Soul Mate in life and gets dumped quite often. However, Mark Humphrey, (Gabriel) manages to drop into her life and things really start to change, except that Gabriel cannot remember a thing after an accident. This is really a comedy through out most of the picture and then it turns into a drama, and you begin to wonder just how this TV film is going to end. The ending will surprise you and all the actors in the film gave an outstanding performance. Great seeing Molly back on the Big Silver Screen where she belongs, what a talent.
Harmless fun
I'll second, third, or whatever the notion that this thing is amusing to watch just for Ringwald's performance; having a "real" movie actress in one of these formulaic vehicles kicks it up several notches. But in addition the whole thing is kind of a subversive self-parody of this genre that doesn't take itself too seriously, with some "knowing winks" thrown in by the writer. For example at one point when they are home for the evening, lawyer Ringwald's way-too-good-to-be-true "house boyfriend/client" says something improbable like "shall we see what's on Lifetime" and she comes back with something like "no I've got to work". There are a lot of courtroom scenes where Ringwald is an amusingly klutzy defense lawyer, including scenes with the "evil queen" prosecutor where the jury is comically sympathetic to over-emoting prosecution witnesses; its a bit like a low-rent "Legally Blonde" at times.