Hollow Image

TV Movie
1979
1h 39m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A Black New York career girl who has made it big in the fashion world is torn between her new life "downtown" and her roots in Harlem with an old boyfriend still living there.A Black New York career girl who has made it big in the fashion world is torn between her new life "downtown" and her roots in Harlem with an old boyfriend still living there.A Black New York career girl who has made it big in the fashion world is torn between her new life "downtown" and her roots in Harlem with an old boyfriend still living there.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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User reviews2

6.581

Featured reviews

8bettyegriffinunderwood

Good message, but flawed story

A rare depiction of successful, young Blacks (like The Best Man 20 years later, although the 35-ish/40-ish characters in this film are somewhat older than those in that later film...note that Morgan Freeman's character is supposed to look older than he is because of heroin addiction). I was 22 years old when I saw this on TV and enjoyed it very much. Upon seeing it again on YouTube, I had a number of questions: Where were the parents of these people (Danny was said to be living in the same apartment but apparently it's his now). These characters are supposed to be 30 years old. Are all their parents dead? Why was it uncertain that Sweet Talk could get into a rehab facility that day, when the young girl that came in after him was told the bus would come for her in 20 minutes? It's also hard to believe that Ivy wouldn't have mentioned to Harriet at all that their mutual friend had been murdered. But a good story nonetheless.

7trista-902-431742

Rare 70's Exploration of a Successful Black Woman's Personal Struggles

This 1979 made for TV film focuses on Harriet Gittens, a black businesswoman who works in the fashion industry as a buyer. Harriet's pursuit of success has taken her far from her Harlem background and past connections there--including ex-boyfriend Danny. Harriet suddenly finds herself torn between her current life "uptown" (glamorous career, fancy NY apartment, lawyer boyfriend) and the life she left behind.

A refreshing departure from 70's Blaxploitation fare, Hollow Image is still relevant today. The cast is uniformly excellent, with standout performances from Hattie Winston (Harriet's sassy cousin Ivy), Anna Maria Horsford (Danny's girlfriend who does NOT want Harriet back in the picture), and Morgan Freeman (Sweet Talk who was once a ladies' man, now a junkie.)

Highly recommended.

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Trivia
When bringing Sweet Talk in for drug rehab, Danny informs the clerk that Sweet Talk's age is 30. Morgan Freeman was actually 42 years old the year this film premiered on television. None of the actors playing childhood friends (Saundra Sharp, Hattie Winston, and Dick Anthony Williams) looked that young, more like 35-40. (Robert Hooks was in his early 40s, but he was not part of this group, but still a little old for a successful attorney who wanted to marry and have a family.)

Goofs
If the childhood friends are 30 years old, it seemed odd that none of their parents were mentioned or seen. It's a stretch to say that all of them are dead (they'd be in their late 50s or somewhere in their 60s) at such young ages, but yet they're too old to be retired and moved south. Danny even still lives in his childhood apartment, but there's no mention of what happened to his parents.