Original Intent

My review was written in July 1992 after watching the movie on Paramount video cassette.

Well-meaning to a fault, "Original Intent" is a squeaky-clean plea for individuals to change their values and help the homeless. Playing like a born-again tract, this hokey feature is unlikely to soften any hard hearts in videoland.

Filmed in 1989, pic was acquired by since-quiescent Studio Three, and later by Skouras Pictures, but never released theatrically. It bears superficial resemblance to Lawrence Kasdan's subsequent conscience-tweaker "Grand Canyon" but is hopelessly square in script and execution.

Jay Richardson is a successful Los Angeles lawyer whose wife, Candy Clark, is an equally successful ad agency exec. Their contented life is turned upside down by a visit from Richardson's college chum Kurt Fuller, a relentless do-gooder who brings up plenty of nostalgia for the militant 1960s. He talks Richardson into doing some legal work to prevent Robert DoQui's ghetto shelter for the homeless from being evicted.

]Toothless vilain of the piece is Vince Edwards, a ruthless industrialist intent on not having the homeless anywhere near his proposed real estate development project. In a corny plot twist, it turns out Edwards owns a toy company that represents the biggest account for Clark's ad firm, so Richardson's fight will cost his spouse her job.

The selfish characters gradually see the light, with extremely puerile consciousness raising subplots. When Richardson takes in a homeless black youngster (Patick Malone) who's having trouble at school, the kid of course steals his electronics equipment as a test of his phony liberal attitudes.

Filmmaker Robert Marcarelli's heart is obviously in the right pae, but he lacks the style and wit of a Frank Capra needed to pull off such a self-righteous task. Guest stars including Martin Sheen, as a dazed homeless man, or Cindy Pickett, as a newly homeless mother, provide sincere, one-dimensional support.

It's nice to see Richardson, usually cast in t&a exploitation films, play a normal guy for a change and the underrated Clark is also effective in her first leading role in over a decade.

Plot: a busy lawyer gets involved with defending a homeless shelter that's about to be forced out of its building by a big corporate mogul. The crisis comes when Matt (the lawyer) begins to neglect his family, alienating and endangering them, in favor of his work for the shelter.

When I first started watching this, I almost turned it off after a few minutes. The acting was SO bad! Reminded me of a badly-done high school play--- fakey voices and overdone expressions and gestures. The family situation was just too trite. The lawyer's secretary was like some sort of exaggerated caricature of prissy secretaries. But it got better when Kurt Fuller came on as Matt's old college buddy with a favor to ask (Kurt is the actor who plays Father Pat in "Joshua"--- kind of offbeat personality, very likeable). The story got interesting when the scene shifted to the homeless shelter, solid performances by Kris Kristofferson as a compassionate displaced Vietnam veteran and Martin Sheen as a bewildered homeless guy. I loved the characters of Ben and Lily (Robert DoQui and Virgina Capers), the couple who ran the shelter--- full of warmth and understanding, tough but full of faith. The music by Ernie and Debby Rettino fit in just right. Vince Edwards put in a good performance as the big bad corporate mogul who wants the shelter out of the way for his big development in the city, and Joseph Campanella did a convincing (if chilling) job as the jaded judge. Most of the characters, though, notably Matt, his wife and kids, and the homeless mother who came seeking help, needed to tone it down a little to be believable. Matt's speech in the judge's chambers was melodrama at its most unbelievably melodramatic. But I still liked the movie. The thing I disliked the most was the totally unnecessary use of four-letter words and use of "God" as a swear word. I would like to have had my son watch this movie, because the story and meaning were good, but this kind of language made it inappropriate for him. Hard to understand why they put that in there--- didn't they have enough faith in the plot, dialogue, and characterizations to get the message across? Oh, well. Go figure. If you liked this movie, may I suggest "The Boys Next Door", a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation that stars another actor from "Joshua", Tony Goldwyn, as a social worker involved with a handful of mentally/emotionally challenged men living together in a sort of halfway house.

ORIGINAL INTENT, a straight-to-video drama from 1992, might be a Christian propaganda film but it's not all bad. The story is straightforward enough, as a crusading lawyer joins forces with the owners of a homeless shelter who are currently battling the legal demands of a developer intent on razing the place to the ground and building expensive apartments in its stead.

Where this film shines is in the moral dilemmas it sets out to the characters. It turns out that the protagonist's wife actually works for the guy who's planning to build the redevelopment, so there's a conflict of interests between the two and one which quickly bubbles over into their marriage. Meanwhile, other characters get bogged down in the legalities of it all, and there are cheesy songs on the soundtrack and an expectedly heartwarming ending.

The cast boast performances from a typically gruff Kris Kristofferson, a cameo from Martin Sheen, and a nice role for Robert DoQui, a favourite of mine for his performance as the tough chief of police in ROBOCOP. Everything plays out here exactly as you'd expect, but ORIGINAL INTENT is surprisingly well made and engaging for what it is.