Breathing Lessons

Though pretty faithful to Anne Tyler's Pultzer Prize winning

novel, and despite the excellent Joanne Woodward & James Garner

in the leads, this TVM adaptation is disappointingly bland. What

was hilarious in the book is only mildly funny, and what was

abrasive and infuriating is all too cosy.

Interesting day in the life of a long time married couple who cope with each other's ways. They obviously don't always get along, their kids are alienated and maladjusted; their life is mundane and purposeless. I got a few laughs but also felt somewhat disgruntled while viewing the nothing lives of these folks and those they came into contact with.

What a disgrace! I was checking this out hoping it would be an undiscovered James Garner gem and what a stinker it turned out to be! The production quality was fine, but the plot was undeniably lame and I can honestly say that I am only a couple hours older and a lot dumber now. The movie really had no redeeming qualities and if this kind of stuff keeps coming out, it will give Hallmark a bad name. For those of you who insist on knowing what it was about, it's about nothing, and in this case, it's not a good thing. We are subjected to watching one old ornery woman who is one of the dumbest creatures ever to roam the earth, who happens to be married to a real sweetheart who is probably the only person alive that could put up with her. She drags him through one mess after another, gets him into one embarrassing situation after another, and is proud of herself the whole time. Then the movie ends. What a relief that was! Not worth the time it would take to watch it, so do yourself a favor and skip this one, you'll be glad you did if you knew how bad this one really is.

So it was TV movie - I only saw it fairly recently but feel I must write something about it. Some of the comments on here indicate that the viewer has never read anything by Ann Tyler (my favourite writer). She writes about ordinary people who have their strengths and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams. And that's what this couple were like. One viewer found the Joanne Woodward character irritating - and so one might if you view her out of context. The wonderful thing about Ann Tyler is how she gets into the heads of ordinary men and I presume women. The Joanne Woodward character brings an optimism and 'romance' to the relationship with the Garner figure. I enjoyed the movie - just like I enjoy Tyler's novels - I'm always disappointed when I get to the last page, just want to know more. If you've not read her stories give her a try. The movie is a reasonable introduction.

First, Ann Tyler is one of my favorite authors, and I have enjoyed all of her books from the decades-old ones to her most recent ones and she may be retired now. "Breathing Lessons" is one I read at least twice, and one of her best. When the VHS of the Hallmark adaptation showed up at the local thrift store I just had to buy it and spend a quiet Saturday evening viewing it.

For anyone who'd never read the book this movie would come across as a less-sacharine-than-usual Hallmark movie with stronger acting. Joanne Woodward was a great choice for the Maggie character and it's also a pleasure to see James Garner in a leading role as her not-quite-henpecked husband. Most viewers would probably find the subject matter to be just a series of vignettes about a couple going through late middle age.

However, huge liberties were taken with the story to shoehorn it into a 90-minute Hallmark format. Without giving too much away for anyone interested in reading the wonderful book, it has way more scope and follows an arc lasting months instead of just chronicling a couple of days in the life of Mr. and Mrs. Moran.

The significance of "Breathing Lessons" becomes a throwaway line from Fiona, when in the book it's way more relevant and standout. Of course, if the movie had truly followed the book all the way it would have been a mini-series and not just a Hallmark movie. Still, it's enjoyable and heartwarming and does manage to pull together a nifty little ending.