A Substituta

I have to admit that I never expected Lea Thompson to do such an amazing job with this role but she was outstanding! The concept of the movie was seen through the eyes of the old west days and this I am sure was just too good to be true. But..."this is how it should be" in the face of adversity and one human being relies on another. It brings out the maternal instincts to a point of extreme in finding hope for the children in the near future not knowing if or when things will change but knowing that they WILL medically speaking. At first, it was slow but picked up with real emotion and Farrah was excellent in her role as well. She really depicts the true emotion of a "working women" not being kissed because that is intimate and special. So the real emotion came shining through when she finally intimately kissed back on the lips. Truly logical and sensible in the way the whole situation was handled yet in today's society I can't think of anyone that would put up with this arrangement! Brought genuine tears to my eyes and the friendship between Lea and Farrah was brought out in real tear jerking mode! I really loved it!

I had watched this film when it first came out and was left emotionally moved by it, so much so that when the opportunity arose to view it again came up i thought, yes why not! Lea Thompson played the wife who was dying. Loved and determination drove her to find someone to love and care for her husband and children when she was gone. Having loved someone deeply but being unable to be with them, yet being glad that someone else could be, I could relate how she would be driven by pure motives. The subject matter was dealt with in a realistic way and the acting was natural and drew me into the situation as an onlooker, being able to view the situation from each of the characters position. An excellent film, well worth the time taken to watch it!

1869, at a farm in Nebraska. Amy Hightower (Lea Thompson) discovers that she is affected by an incurable illness. Wife and devoted mother, she decides to find a new woman for her husband, Martin (Peter Weller). Having finally persuaded her husband, Amy visits numerous widows, but always returns empty-handed. Frustrated, she eventually makes her proposition to prostitutes. One of them, Pearl ( Farrah Fawcett), accepts immediately...

Looking like "The Little House on the Prairie ", with a shot of vulgarity and a good dose of unlikeliness. On this insipid cream tart, a cherry: Farrah Fawcett!

Why this movie isn't screened more often I can't understand. It was delicately and sensitively played by all the actors, and incorporated a gamut of emotions from comedy to pathos, but never becoming over-sentimental, gushy, or stodgy.

The problems of males "getting spliced" on the Prairies in the mid 19th century, must have been difficult to solve at any time considering there were about ten men to one woman. For a widower with a bunch of kids in tow it would have been virtually impossible, particularly if he was a sod-buster...the lowest of the low in farming circles.

This was beautifully and amusingly solved by the dying wife, by arranging impending nuptials between her soon to be bereaved husband and a whore looking for a way out of her present predicament.

The film is strikingly, if not lavishly photographed, has an intelligent well crafted script, which makes all the points it can out of a rather thin plot, and some lovely accompanying music to boot.

It may not appeal to others as much as it did to me, but it's well worth a watch, and I also think worthy of a place in anyone's library.

I was captivated by this story because you don't see many stories like this. A woman is dying and finds someone to replace her to take care of her husband and children. Eventually the husband and the replacement start to care for each other and the wife approves. There is more to the story. Was sad and funny and very good story telling.