Mother and Daughter: The Loving War

I got this movie out of the library on VHS of interest mainly because Harry Chapin did the music. It has every cliché you can imagine and the writing/acting are typical at best, but the characters and scenarios still kept me intrigued.

Tuesday Weld as Lillie, who gets pregnant as a teen and spends the rest of her life doing anything she can for her daughter (Kathleen Beller), repeating the same cycle her mother did for her.

As I said before, I got this for the Chapin music and it's the best part of it. It features some new music he did just for the movie, as well as some old classics ("Woman Child", "Tanged Up Puppet" and the Chapin anthem "Circle"). He also makes a cameo appearance in the end.

5/10

This is a lovely movie concerning the development, breakdown, and re-development of a relationship between a mother and her daughter. The movie starts with Tuesday Weld as a daughter. She breaks away from her family, to become a mother. It's a stormy relationship from the beginning, as she learns what it is to be a mother. In the end (as we all wish it to be) she and her daughter reunite. The music is excellent (Harry Chapin - who also has a bit part as the boyfriend). The acting is good. Warning - you need tissue to get through this movie!

This is unremarkable television movie fodder memorable for Harry Chapin's songs which hardly suit this genre, and for Tuesday Weld's performance.

The talents of Chapin and Weld deserved far better than this. The characters as written are simply of little interest. Though well played, the material is terribly thin and though Sternhagen and Weld give of their best, their talents are somewhat wasted.

For Weld or Chapin fans only.

Not a very memorable movie, unless you're a big Harry Chapin fan. All of the songs were his original compositions and couple of them not released anywhere (that I'm aware of) besides the once that this TV movie was shown. Also of note, for Chapin fans, his appearance at the ending as "the mother's" boyfriend. In case you haven't guessed I'm a big Chapin fan.