Mais Forte que a Amizade

Ever since I've seen this actor in Birdcage and Shooting Fish, I had to search for more of his work. I came across this VHS tape of Thicker Than Blood. I was taken by another great performance for this actor. It seems he can do anything, and certainly deserves recognition, beyond the likes of a Ben Afleck and his buddy Mark Damon, to name just a few. Mickey Rourke suprised me in a low key performance which reveals also true talent. The ending was predictable and a disappointment, but the movie as a whole was very satisfying. See it for Futterman's performance.

I am a teacher, and I believe I have seen every film made in this genre: white teacher tries to go out and save the underprivileged urban children. This is the best of the lot. It is unpretentious and doesn't pretend to have all the answers. Without spoiling the ending, I will say that "Hollywood" would never have allowed it. I think it is a worthwhile film.

I guess I am one of the selected few who appreciated the value or message movie was trying to send. I even got a kick out of the choice of Mickey Rourke as the Head 'priest'. I liked the movie and make no apologies!

True stories are always invaluable when they are reconstructed on film. The great actuing qualities of both Peter Strauss and Rachel Nicotin add to the convincing authenticity of the story, which must touch the hearts of any viewer, especially parents. There is not much drama here, no violence, only emotional passions, especally on the part of the father, and the general mood of the film is rather languid and soft. The one contrast in the drama is the surprise entrance of the biological father, who makes a rather bizarre supporting figure bordering on the ridiculous, underlining the obvious syndrome of an unnatural mother. The question is how the husband could trust such a mother at all, with her cocaine fallacy and spurious past, and who never told her husband anything, but he still gave her a chance with very interesting consequences.

In a lot of ways - at least the most important ones - this film takes the whole "teacher saves student" genre and gives it some actual life and intelligence. There's is a certain measure of self-awareness to how the script subverts the old clichés, making sure that it takes the opposite expected approach at key moments. In the end, this doesn't make it more realistic, just more different. At one point, the main character watches a portion of "Stand and Deliver", which is, interestingly, more raw and realistic than this film.

There's a kind of episodic approach to "Thicker Than Blood". It ends up feeling a little bit like an entire television season condensed to a single film. I believe that this takes away from the overall story. We're left without a lot of connecting tissue to keep it together. The emotional crescendo that finally rounds out the film loses some of it's punch because we're robbed of the quiet moments in the getting there.

But there are several good points. Richard Pearce works well with his actors, as he nearly always does. Working within a fairly standard script, he pulls an extra unexpected bit out of them in the process. The actors themselves are believable, which is a plus. Without the on-screen chemistry of Dan Futterman and Carlo Alban, there'd be little else to hold it all together. Alban, especially, has a kind of painful real life quality to him. If this type of story is your sort, it's up there with films like "Up the Down Staircase", "Stand and Deliver" and the "Boston Public" series. If it isn't, you might still get a little something from the experience.