John Ritter plays as a 29 year old bachelor, Robert Christenberry, successful attorney with a prominent law firm who falls in love with a legal investigator assigned to his office, Isobel Ross (Karen Carlson), age 43, and while Robert opens his heart and craves marriage with her, Isobel, divorced with a 24 year old daughter, holds a more sensible attitude toward their affair, and complications result, both at and away from their workplace. The film is based upon David Kaufelt's debut novel, "Six Months With An Older Woman", with its script by Michael Norell displaying significant changes, e.g., shaving a couple of years off the age of the "older woman", repositioning the work environment of the lovers from publishing to law, and eliding Robert's parallel thralldom to his mother and his psychiatrist, each of whom potentially endangers Robert's bond with Isobel. The work is set in San Francisco and shot there for television, with that medium's pedigree in evidence throughout, including a cobbled score, reliance upon single takes, and erratic editing, particularly pertinent to the sound, but cinematographer Thomas Del Ruth utilizes the scenic locations very well and, following a somewhat unimaginative opening, the film begins to construct itself from within, as it were, despite these flaws, until at last naturalistic emotion controls the scenario. The piece is loosely directed, resulting in its becoming actor driven, with dialogue often trite but yet increasingly percipient as the action progresses, Carlson earning acting laurels for her layered performance as a woman giving in to passion while not losing sight of a higher reality, a deftly defined performance, helping lead this interesting film to its pleasing and only temperately ambiguous ending.
