Cœur en sursis

Another heart-wrenching story of helpless parents coping with a terminally ill child, diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. Liza Minelli's performance is outstanding. Totally devoted to caring for her son and preparing to go to any lengths to improve the condition of his health, her portrayal is not only admirable, but inspirational too. Appearing both frustrated and angry, but never revealing her weakness for her son to see, you can really empathize with what she has to endure. The obvious tragedy is that this boy will never have the chance to live his whole life. The underlying tragedy is those who are around him won't be able to share that experience with him.

During the Lorenzo's Oil time period, there were tons of theatrical and television movies about sick or dying children and their long-suffering parents. If you want to see Liza Minnelli's version, rent A Time to Live, in which her son Corey Haim is suffering from muscular dystrophy. Liza and her husband Jeffrey DeMunn go to many different doctors, even a spiritual one in Paris, but no one can help Corey. He's just going to get worse and worse until eventually he's in a wheelchair permanently. The most touching scene for me was when Corey is presented with his wheelchair. Jeffrey "test-drives" it for him, but Corey's afraid because his doctor told him once he gets in the wheelchair, he'll never get out. Jeffrey tells him to sit down in it, and then to get up, showing that it's not necessarily forever. Liza's mother starts to cry, and Liza gives her tough love, forbidding her to cry in front of Corey again. It's positive, positive, positive at their house all day, every day.

Liza's high energy is off the charts in her constant attempts to distract her son from his crippling condition and make his life as good as possible. As often happens, her attention to Corey sometimes makes her other, healthy son feel ignored and unloved. She also feels resentful that Jeffrey doesn't help out very often. Her manic high can only last so long, and combined with chronic insomnia, we can feel she's about to snap at any given moment. It's a great performance, but a very sad story, so does anyone really want to sit down and watch it? She won a well-deserved Golden Globe for the movie, though, so if you are a fan of hers and want to see her looking very pretty and acting very well (sometimes they don't both go hand in hand), you can try it.

Liza Minnelli won a Golden Globe for forthright performance as real-life Mary-Lou Weisman, whose young son was stricken with muscular dystrophy. Minnelli's Mary-Lou is tough and tender, hopeful for a cure and yet acerbically wise to her no-win situation. Predictably, as per the TV-movie genre, Dad is the proverbial shadow in the proceedings, ready to throw in the towel early while Mom soldiers on. This is acceptable here, as Minnelli's gritty strength and heartfelt sentiment distinguishes the movie, but too often the piece slips into sick-kid clichés. We admire Mary-Lou (who wouldn't?), but there isn't anything surprising or unconventional in this material. The emotions rendered in "A Time to Live" don't feel put on, and everyone gets an 'A' for effort, but it's a minor entry on Liza's résumé.

This is a film about a mother's struggle with her youngest son's exacerbating muscular dystrophy.

Who do they movies like these? For ailing parents who are faced with similar circumstances? Is it for empathetic purposes, to get the rest of us to realize the difficulties of these situations (as though we already didn't know)? Perhaps, both. I don't really know. But, I do know that these movies are a dime a dozen, and particularly popularly for mid-80s to early-90s made for TV fare. This low budget production was one of the more cornier ones that I had seen.

Liza Minelli does carry the entire film, sadly, because 1) the overall movie, although about a touching topic (I suppose) is really quite boring and too long for the little substance we're actually given; and 2) because she is really the only one, besides Swoozie Kurtz who has a minor supporting role, who can act worth a damned. Check out the opening scene where the mother and father are in the doctor's office discussing the son's condition. She sounds like she's reading from a teleprompter and can't see the text so well. It's no surprise that she'd win a Golden Globe for the performance either. She's always had screen appeal as the witty, independent, and charismatic characters she often portrays.

Corey Haim fans, may nonetheless, appreciate its nostalgic, since pre-stardom Haim is here aplenty. Otherwise, I'd say you could probably find something better scanning Lifetime TV reruns.

Minnelli is devastatingly on-target and utterly convincing as a suburban mother caring for her terminally ill son (Corey Haim, excellent in the best role of his career). Originally (and more appropriately) titled "Intensive Care", this project will remind you Liza Minnelli began work in films as a dramatic actress, not a musical comedy star. It's a pity she doesn't do more work of this nature, as she is a powerhouse here.