La pensione

The stars of this sweet, under-rated romantic drama are Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston. Both deserve kudos for their under played, believable performances.

Waterston does a great job as the romantic lead, giving an excellent performance as Travis Coles, a professional Cellist. Coles slowly comes to sympathize with and appreciate Channing's character, the shy but brilliant special ed teacher, Leah Lazenby. The slow recognition of mutual attraction is particularly well done.

The contrast and interplay between Leah's roles as a teacher of the most difficult special needs students and as the owner of a boarding house dealing with each of her tenants makes this made for TV movie worth seeing.

My wife has asked me to place this comment for her! She watches the film principally for Sam Waterston but is captivated by the stunning and convincing performance of De'voreaux White as Jack.

If you like cello music, sobbing and great acting, make a point of watching.

A TV movie that deserves to be better known - in Britain it tends to be an afternoon movie on Channel 5 with a probable audience of a few dozen.