A Christmas Memory

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 Christmas MOVIES.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I AM HONEST! I REVIEW Christmas MOVIES AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN!

This film is a bout a boy named "Buddy" When Buddy's parents split and his New York thespian mother makes her career a priority, exuberant young boy Buddy (Eric Lloyd) is sent to the Depression-era South to live with distant and aging cousins. Though cousin Jennie (Piper Laurie) is strict and joy is hard to come by in the small town, Buddy finds an unlikely friend in his mentally challenged elder cousin, Sook (Patty Duke). Buddy and Sook embark on many delightful exploits, but forces beyond their control threaten to separate them.

This is a well made adaption of source material. The film holds your attention. The heart of this story is about "Unconditional Love". The two leads in this film have that for each other. It is love that all us deserve to find. I highly recommend this. It is family safe but small children will be bored. I think this is one of those films that the older you are the more you will enjoy this.

I will watch this again.

My initial feelings about this newer version of Christmas Memory were similar to many of the other posters. It does the original story a disservice by padding the story with a lot of extraneous characters and dialog that is so-not Capote. If you take this version on its own without making any comparisons, it's really not bad. Patty Duke tries very hard, and succeeds, in making Sook a character all her own. The other performers are also quite good. If the producers of this version needed to expand on the story to fill out 90 minutes, they might have included details from Capote's other Buddy/Christmas story entitled "One Christmas" where Buddy is sent to New Orleans to spend Christmas with his birth father.

Still, if you have the simplicity and charm of Capote's original imprinted on your mind and heart, this version will not do. I join the chorus of folks who would like the 1966 version on a pristine and uncut color DVD with Geraldine Page's wonderful performance and Capote's own voice narrating the story. Then again, perhaps it is sentiment that makes me favor the 1966 version, the same as the 1947 "Miracle on 34th Street" over any of its lame remakes, 1946's "It's a Wonderful Life" over 1977's "It Happened One Christmas", any animated Christmas specials other than the ones produced in the 1960s, or Lesley Ann Warren's 1965 Cinderella over Brandy's hip-hop version.

There is another adaptation of Truman Capote's novella which stars Geraldine Paige and features narration by the author. This version is infinitely superior to the 1997 adaptation. What makes the Paige version work is its austerity and respect for the material. Nothing in it is sticky-sweet or earth-shaking; it tells the story of two gentle souls who enjoy each other's friendship, and tells it well. The 1997 version, on the other hand, seems to have no respect for Capote's story. It fills the stage with other characters, extraneous dialogue, and scenes that are so calculated and sentimental you might have to leave the room (I did). For example, this piece of dialogue: "If you send Buddy to military school, he'll die!" "He won't die." "Then I might!!" Just this one instance is so far away from the heart of Capote's tale that this TV movie should not have the gall to associate itself with the original book. Do yourself a big favor: stay far away from this version and read the original.

Anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of Truman Capote and his boyhood years will find this wonderful adaptation right on the mark. The prior, much shorter work (1967) was also wonderfully executed with Geraldine Paige bringing her own interpretations to the screen. Truman Capote narrated that version and it was necessary to slow down the audio track of his voice in order to lower his intonations. No computers to do it then!

But, for my money, the Patty Duke version succeeds on all levels in bringing a superior work to the screen on a television budget.

Long ago, in times gone past, when my children were small and their world was still small and did not hold as many people as it does now,our yearly tradition was to watch "A Christmas Memory".I would sit with a child on either side of me and we would enjoy this very touching story. It remains etched in all of our memories as one of the best traditions we had.Their Mothers world expanded also and included "friends" that we did not know about,so after the divorce all items were split up and some lost forever.One of the items happened to be our copy of "A Christmas Memory" I have gone to this site in hopes of finding a copy, the original with Geraldine Paige, I believe.This story shows how things always change and how every person who enters our lives is a teacher in one way or another and how the people who do enter our lives help map the journey that is the path we choose to follow.It also teaches a lesson concerning telling others how we feel about them when we have the opportunity and not waiting till it's too late. Highly recommended to all, young and old. Share this movies with someone close to you.