Just My Imagination

Innocuous little filler film offering work to low rent actor, Tom Wopat. Were it not for the "Dukes Of Hazard" this performer would still be parking cars and pumping gas. Not much to say in favor of this, it was watchable but just barely.

Tom Wopat is excellent as Bobby Rex. He always wanted to be a singer . Bobby Rex's Number One Hit is called "Whomping Pally Thompson". Unfortunately Pally Thompson is the name of a former classmate and the teacher at a local school who lives with her mother. Pally gets suspended from her job and gets attacked by her best friend who was Bobby's girlfriend. Her mother is embarassed and her boyfriend gets jealous. There are lots of songs in this film beautifully sung by Tom Wopat especially "As I Live And Breathe " from Mr Wopat's 1992 CD "Learning To Love". Jean Smart is brilliant as a single woman trying to get her life back together again after an event that was no fault of her own. If you are a Tom Wopat fan (and who isn't) you will love this film.

The life of a primary school teacher is overturned by a hit song composed by a former school friend of hers, who has now become a rock star. The song tells of a love story which its author imagined involved himself and the school teacher. An unpretentious little comedy which is perhaps a little drawn out by its length.

Why wasn't this called that instead of "Just My Imagination?" I can't even remember anybody in this movie imagining ANYTHING. Maybe that is just because I haven't seen this movie since it aired in 1992, which was a looooooong time ago. Nevertheless, I am still able to remember it, so I guess that means I didn't hate it. It's actually kind of a hard movie to hate. While it seemed to be trendy in 1992 to have every TV-movie be about death or destruction, along came this little movie, which centered upon a teacher (Pally Thompson, who is played by Jean Smart) in a small town, who's life is disrupted by a singer who writes a song about her.

The love and romance is actually sort of dull, but anything is better than those other TV-movies about death and diseases that they show every other week. Besides, Pally's flashbacks are precious. I particularly remember one where she was in home-ec class and the teacher was lecturing about personal grooming...and singled out poor Pally as a negative example. It kind of makes you admire the character for being able to put up with all that junk and making something successful out of her life. Anyway, Jean Smart(who tends to be in those silly, stereotypical TVM's)was actually not that bad, and such other performers as Pat Carroll and Orson Bean do very well in their roles. It's not exactally a gem of a movie, but it's a little hard to hate. I wouldn't mind watching it again, at least.

Maybe this movie had extra meaning for me since I grew up in a small town in the South, and wanted to taste the bright lights eventually. Fortunately, I got to do that, although I never lost the hometown values--kept coming back to them.

Jean Smart remains an incredible and quite lovely actress, who can take movie goers through a wide range of emotions. I had not seen Tom Wopat previously, and I thought he played the part well. Interesting that in real life Jean Smart is the daughter of a teacher, and plays one in this movie.

I recommend this movie highly, especially for people who have dreamed of big city life and fame.