Tender Loving Care

For those of you who may be confused, this isn't a movie per se, it's more of a video game. You are shown clips of the story, afterwhich you are asked a series of questions and are given a chance to search around the house in which the action takes place, finding clues and sometimes interacting with the characters. That said, it is very very easy to get yourself totally immersed in Tender Loving Care. The acting at times is less than par, but despite this the characters seem very deep. The "game" aspect makes it take a while to finish the whole thing, but it is very worth it at the end when you are presented with a complete psychoanalysis based on your answers to questions and your searches through the house. I've played it through more than once, it is well worth the time.

I have just viewed this movie, after about three sessions (the quizzes and tours of the Overtons' residence take up quite a bit of time, and as they also break the flow, are convenient points to leave the story for later viewing). You cannot just pop the disk in and expect to be done in two hours. It is true that the acting is less than stellar, and the interactive nature of the plot means that the scene transitions can be jarring and sometimes lack flow when the software selects the scene according to the personality questions you've answered. Additionally, there are the typical gaffs you see in grade "B" movie making, such as when the camera revolves around Michael in a phone booth and you see the crew reflected in the glass. All this I can overlook, however, as I think this is a very laudable attempt at coming to grips with a new genre. For me, the emotional impact of the story was definitely heightened by its attempt at identifying, then pushing, my emotional buttons, even in such a ham-handed, primitive way. Of course, the more honest you are with the many questions, the more satisfying is the end result. The highly personal nature of the questions suggests that it is best to view this alone, at first. It would be interesting viewing for couples who are comfortable communicating with each other, but caution is recommended. As this genre becomes more sophisticated (assuming of course the fickle public buys into it), becoming more incisive, I think it will have a larger effect on society than violence in the media, maybe even the television itself. If it succedes in reaching into your guts and shoving that stuff in your face, who knows how different people will react when confronted by that level of truth?

This movie is actually a computer cd-rom game. But that doesn't make it bad, actually it's the other way around. The actors are great and is really handling this new kind of acting very well. At the beginning it felt a little strange when the actors stared right through the camera and looked at you, but it gave a better impression of being in the movie. The questions given in the movie can be a little stupid sometimes and I never knew what they really where there for. Anyway this is a great movie and it can't be missed, see it and play it.

I have to disagree...

The movie is very lame... but almost in a good/funny way. It's the questions that make this interactive DVD fun. In between movie segments you're asked questions about your feelings toward the events that took place and also psychological questions about yourself. In the end you get an evaluation of your your mental health.. which is more like a cosmo quiz unfortunately..

The story is badly written and predictable. The actors a overacting and a saw a microphone in the frame once or twice..

Still for a couple off bucks it's a nice DVD to watch (and play)

My friend and I recently played the video game version for some laughs. As a game it's very limited with the technology you are actually just answering questions and exploring the game world via on rails pre rendered backgrounds with fmv segments to fill in the story. The acting is decent the premise is quite dull taking way to long to get any where but the actors are surprisingly good you hate and sympathize all the right people. You are better off watching the movie version than playing as a game. It's just to long and convoluted as a game and start to lose interest very early on I don't know if this was supposed to be a hand that rocked the cradle situation but we stopped caring half way through.