Right of Way

Bette Davis and James Stewart play a devoted, long-time married couple with a dilemma in this adaptation by Richard Lees from his play. Seems Bette has a fatal allergy to her own blood, while Jimmy--a caring, gentle, go-along kind of hubby--refuses to live without her. Enter grown daughter Melinda Dillon, the type of movie daughter who excitedly answers the phone when her elderly father phones her; she can't understand why her folks want to kill themselves and so alerts the authorities. Well-acted treatise on the problems of aging from HBO Premiere Films, but stagy, glum, and at times irritating. Three CableACE nominations; Best Actor (Stewart), Best Actress (Davis), Best Drama Special. ** from ****

The main draw of 'Right of Way' is the two stars, wonderful actors in James Stewart and Bette Davis both responsible for some of the all-time great screen performances (namely George Bailey in 'It's A Wonderful Life' and Margo Channing in 'All About Eve') in many very good and more films. Another big draw is the subject 'Right of Way' explores, it's a brave subject and an important and relevant one.

'Right of Way' is interesting, thoughtful and has emotional impact, but doesn't see the best of either Stewart or Davis while not wasting them. The same applies for the subject of suicide pacts and euthanasia, handled intriguingly enough and hardly trivialised but could have been explored more and in a way more tactfully in places.

It is agreed that 'Right of Way' does suffer from lack of realism in parts, namely again agreed the actions of the daughter Ruda after being told of the couple's plan. The supporting characters are one-dimensional, patchily acted and written with little subtlety or plausibility, the social worker being the worst offender. A shame because it is such a relevant, important and real situation, but those misjudgements cheapened the impact somewhat.

Didn't buy the ending either, there was a sense that the writers and producers didn't know how to end so instead tacked one on. Momentum sags towards the end.

However, Davis and Stewart are excellent, they are the reason to see 'Right of Way', with a preference for the more restrained Stewart (at his most restrained ever perhaps). Davis is quite moving though and commands the screen whenever she appears, and if it is true that Davis was difficult to work with and she and Stewart spent little time together off screen their chemistry on screen didn't come over as distant. Melinda Dillon has a hard role to pull off, and she does pull it off, despite some of her actions she was not an unsympathetic character and she was not hard to relate to.

Beautifully filmed 'Right of Way' is too, while the script is thought-provoking and just about avoids over-sentimentality with touches of understated drollness and some very tender and poignant moments. Particularly a scene between Mrs Dwyer and Ruda. The story does absorb and move, didn't feel that much indifference in the handling of the topic and when there was realism it was sensitive and has one reaching for the tissues.

Summing up, interesting and moving but deals with a topic/subject that it could have gone into depth more. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Hard to find, especially with the 3 different endings. Davis delivers but Steward is an unlikely match. She needs a less soft counterpart. Melinda Dillon as the daughter was unbearable to watch. She is no Davis-daughter. As whole very watchable and ahead of its time. Whoever owns the rights should release a digitally remastered version with all the different endings. Wishful thinking, I know.

Ruda is a single daughter near to reach forty that truly love her old parents. She has her own business making clay pots, as she did as a hobby when she was a child. Their parents asked her to visit them to make her know their determination to end their lives together because of an illness from the mother. Her father told that she has a blood disease whose strange name he feels unable to remember. The mother said she is allergic to her own blood. Ruda send people to their house to try to convince their parents reconsider their decision. Mr. Dwyer (Jimmy Stewart) has an original desk and his wife (Bette Davis) create lovely dolls. They feed lots of cats whose preferred ones are named Robert DeNiro, Paul Newman and Jimmy Cann... Sometimes some of the cats does an incursion into the next house neighbor woman whose children seem countless. One day a man must deliver them a package and ask Mr. Dwyer if he is Mister or Mistress Dwyer! The film has plenty of comical and tender moments. Once, Mr. Dwyer ask a man in the street about what means the sentence: "Que pasa con los hombres olvidados?" from Pablo Neruda, for who he feels a strong admiration.

I'm delighted to see working together two of the greatest stars ever in one of their last performances.