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TV-made adaptation of the autobiography "When Rabbit Howls: by the Troops for Truddi Chase", chronicling Chase's diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder. A commercial artist who married her boss and had one daughter, Chase was haunted by the sexual and psychological abuse afflicted on her as a child by her stepfather. The different personalities she later manifested--her "troops"--soon began interrupting her life so frequently that it ruined her marriage and drove Chase to a therapist. Overextended, lumpy drama preconceived as an acting tour-de-force for its leading lady, however Shelley Long is too calculating as an actress to be convincing as a woman with a serious, frightening mental disorder (and it's her performance that has to carry this project a long way). Too often, Long just seems snippy--in a rotten mood--talking in different rhythms with different accents. Tom Conti is a welcome addition in the film's second half as Truddi's doctor, but other supporting performances are weak. Lamont Johnson's direction is equally mediocre; he mounts the past-and-present proceedings well enough, but allows scenes such as the young Truddi being chased around the farm by her leering stepfather to go on forever (he also gets docked a star for a quite unnecessary baby photo slide-show). Interesting subject matter has been explored more successfully before, yet there is a certain amount of fascination with a topic like this, if one is able to find the heart of the piece amongst the false histrionics.

This is the sad story about Truddi Chase's life, a story who should be treated whit respect! How in earth could they put Shelley Long (Cheers) in that role, she could not handle it and it made the film boring and annoying because of her lack of talent! I wish that someone would remake this film, the role of Truddi Chase would be perfect for Joanna Kerns (Captive, Shattering the silence)

The only reason to watch this movie is because of the story, but i would rather wait until they have re-filmed it, so its possible to truly follow Truddi's life and not have a constant need to strangle Shelley Long.

I find it rather odd to read such unflattering comments about Long's performance. Personally speaking I would say if anyone ever had any doubts about Long's capacity as an actor they should see this film. Her portrayal was/is simply stunning. A stark departure from more predictable / typical roles but Long shines here to an amazing degree. I wish the film was available on DVD / Video so I could share this with my film buff friends. The film itself may warrant criticism but Long's performance makes all that pale into insignificance. Yes - a very untypical role for Long which in itself enhances her performance.

Glenn

I would watch this movie over and over again...I used to have it on tape. I didn't realize it was taken from a book, but unlike other viewer comments, I did gain much insight into the human experience. I felt Shelley Long gave the performance of her career and should have won (or at least been nominated) for some award.

I think this is a really good film for Shelley to have done because it shows that she is a much better actor than she got to show in "Cheers". Pretending to be a different kind of person than you are in real life is good acting, and convincingly playing several different kinds of people in one film is great acting. It is true that the medical condition isn't examined as a medical condition but in my opinion that is not the point if making this film - it was just to give the viewer a feeling of what having multiple personalities does to the subject's family and friends, and in my case it succeeded in that endeavour.

When I saw this film I had never seen an episode of "Cheers", and had never heard of Shelley Long, so all I saw was a great actor who for long periods of a rollercoaster story made me believe that it was all real. I loved the salesperson who could almost literally sell anything to anybody, and I especially loved the plate smashing scene. In my experience only a few other TV films are anywhere near as good as this one, the only one that springs to mind being the Amy Irving version of "Anastasia".