Jewel

Once again, Farrah Fawcett rises above typical television sentimentality and gives a strong performance as a mother facing the hardship of raising a child with Downs Syndrome. Fawcett deserves an Emmy nomination for her potrayal of a woman who gains strength through adversity, and who is the anchor of a family beset by emotional duress and dysfunction. Farrah, both strong and soft, hard and sensitive, continues to grow as an actress. Hopefully, she will be provided even better scripts and direction in the future. Fawcett's turns in The Burning Bed, Small Sacrifices, Dr. T and the Women, and Extremities have shown us that she outgrew her Charlie's Angels image years ago, and that she's long overdue for the really juicy roles.

Our 17 mo. old daughter has Down syndrome and this movie really put into perspective how people with Down syndrome were treated years gone by. Fortunately, Jewel was strong enough to know that her daughter would have a productive life...and by God, she did! God bless all those who went against the system and succeeded. Steps to a brighter future is our goal!!!

'Jewel' the title character,played by Farrah Fawcett,is a mother of four children who now middle-aged awaits her fifth child.Her newborn baby girl is named Brenda Kay and soon after doctors discover that Brenda Kay has Down Syndrome.They give her 2 years to live but Jewel is undaunted.She believes that if she loves Brenda Kay enough everything will be alright.

That is the basic story and Fawcett handles the character of Jewel well.She plays a woman who has resolved to give up anything and everything to ensure the happiness and well-being of her daughter,even if it means that she does so at the expense of her other children and her husband.The story and the characters were handled well enough but personally,it did not make as much of an emotional impact as it could have and the ending was rather disappointing.

"Jewel" is a typical TV movie about a subject that will make a lot of housewives cry their eyes out. It's about a large, very Christian and happy family in the 1940's that will soon be "blessed" with a 5th child. But of course there are some complications. The child appears to have the Syndrome of Down, and will ask all her mother's attention. Mom does everything for her daughter but forgets that there are other people around her as well...

All in all it isn't the worst movie I've ever seen, but it never stands out above the average. This isn't much more but typical TV pulp. The acting is quite good (for this kind of movies), but the actors aren't able to give an extra touch to the uninspired script.

I'm sure this movie will be loved by many, especially by women in their 40's, 50's or older, but personally I find this movie nothing special and not worth a second watch. It's message like "you can run but you can never hide from your problems" and "you have to take your life the way God has intended it to be" is much too conservative to my taste, but I'm sure the average American will love it. The only problem: I'm not average and certainly not American... I give it a 5/10.

The title character, Jewel, is a mother of four, and is happy about her upcoming fifth child. But her housekeeper has strange prophesies that this child will not be like others...and soon enough Jewel realizes there is something different about her baby daughter, Brenda Kay. Jewel consults two doctors and finds that Brenda Kay has Down Syndrome and might not live past two years old. Jewel is determined to give Brenda Kay all the love and care she can; determined that her daughter will live past two years and feel loved. Brenda Kay does live, and she is shown much love by her family. But Jewel's other daughters have problems of their own, and there are tensions that worsen over the years. Will Jewel learn that there's a letting go to loving?

There are a couple of negatives to this movie, mostly just the swearing/using the Lord's name in vain, which occurs four or five times.