Tim

I found it a moving story of love and innocence on the one hand and ignorance, prejudice and bigotry on the other. All the actors from Piper Laurie and Mel Gibson to the Australian actors who played the deeply loving parents and the bigot sister and husband were simply great. I have rarely seen Mel Gibson acting better after this movie. Compliments for the director. The most wonderful but also saddest thing about this movie was that Gibson grew from an almost tabula rasa mind to a person with more grasp of what the world is about. Thanks to the loving guidance of Laurie he learned to read and appreciate art and music. But it also lead him to understand more of the complexity and sometimes ugliness of people. I would love to see it again. Even though I have seen it twice . Of course looking at a young and beautiful Mel Gibson does not hurt.

This is an excellent, modest story of love between a young, simple man (Mel Gibson) and Mary, a successful, older woman (Piper Laurie).

Director Michael Pate deftly explores the way love deepens without contrivance or adherence to pre-set plot points. Tim is a member of a close-knit family who are all moving away from him -- his sister via marriage, his father via death.

As these changes occur in Tim's life (he is mildly mentally retarded), he is drawn inexplicably but naturally into an unconventional relationship that brings strength and awareness to his life.

Gibson and Laurie are both brilliant in their respective roles, as is the late, great Australian actor Alwyn Kurts, who plays Tim's father and bestows on the character great depth and dimension.

A wonderful, moving film.

I just watched this movie because of Mel Gibson,not hoping to see a great movie,but contrary to my foregone conclusion I find this movie meaningful and absorbing.

This movie is the 3rd movie in which Mel Gibson starred & was made in Australia.All the actors did they job very well.

As I mentioned this movie is about a simpleminded bloke who his job is cleaning up people's houses.One day he meets an older woman named Mary and she asks her to clean up his garden there the story begins.Mary sympathize with the illiterate Tim(Gibson) and starts teaching him.Therefore,she sees Tim a lot and they begin to feel for each other.Meanwhile Tim's sister who is getting married,starts worrying and Tim's mother death somehow makes the situation even more complicated....

I recommend this movie to those who love great stories and are in mood for artistic movies.

I actually really enjoyed this. Its a simple, sweet movie with fantastic acting from all involved. The fact that it was made in 1979 only makes it that much more fun to watch. Mel Gibson (in one of his earliest roles) is VERY nice to look at (remember "that" Mel) and he spends most of the movie smiling while running around in Stubbies and a singlet (American translation wee, wee Magnum PI shorts and a tank top) we even get a speedo at one point.

The story follows a middle aged American woman (played brilliantly by Piper Laurie) who hires a simple minded handyman, 24 year old "Tim" as her gardener. The two develop a friendship, she teaches him to read and takes him on trips to the beach.

Their relationship eventually turns romantic following the death of Tim's mother. At first Mary denies her feelings, Tim experiences jealousy and then his father asks Mary to look after Tim when he passes.

I really enjoyed the family dynamic here, both of the parents were fantastic, just great acting in this, and I fell a bit in love with Alwyn Kurts who played Tim's father. There is also a neat scene with Mary reading The Thorn Birds (Tim was based on a novel by Colleen McCullough) as well as all of the cups of tea and middies of beer at the pub, true blue. This was A bit of a gem actually. 11/4/15

Tim is an illiterate young man with a slight mental handicap. He does odd jobs in the neighbourhood. When Mary an intelligent and well-to-do neighbour asks him back to do another job for her, he says simply and honestly."I like you". This begins a new phase in Tim's life. On the one hand he has an over-protective family and on the other a teacher and a friend who takes him in hand and expands his horizons. Mel Gibson in one of his early films does a great job in getting inside Tim's character - simple and innocent, honest and sincere, never mawkish, never over-dramatic. This is a gentle film with the accent on family life. You can feel the exhilaration when Mary takes Tim to the beach and the childish exuberance as he plunges into the sea. Undoubtedly, he makes her feel young again. Mary is a bit of a mystery at first. What are her motives? Is she just expressing a motherly instinct when she feels she needs to care for him or does she see something more in their relationship.. Undoubtedly she is physically attracted to him as he goes about his gardening in neat T=shirt and shorts. I feel that in the beginning of the film Tim's family is just too perfect to be true, but when disaster strikes it becomes a real family with all the emotions that beset them. Mary seeks advice from a psychologist friend about her feelings towards Tim. I really doubt that the answer he gives is correct or practicable for a woman of her standing, but it makes for a happy ending!