User reviews

Clair Miller and her husband are driving along the road one day minding their own business when they're involved in a accident that maims Clair for life and kills her husband . After being told she'll never be able to walk again Clair shocks everybody by walking again . Even more shocking Claire claims she has healing powers that can cure other people

I went in to this film with a vague knowledge of the plot and even though I knew this was a TVM expected it play out in a similar manner to Stephen King's story THE DEAD ZONE . Can you blame me for thinking this ? After all when someone has the supernatural powers to improve the well being of human beings there's many , many people to want to exploit this and I was hoping we'd see a morality tale , something like the episode called Girl Of My Dreams from the 1960s anthology series JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN , but what I got was a very average female friendly TVM that I have seen far , far too often . There's a romantic subplot and lots of arguing with mom and weepy scenes with sick kids and there's even a scene with a litter of puppies while there's no scenes with a mercenary villain or a bitterly ironic ending where the bad guy gets everything he deserves for being greedy . And before you ask there's no men claiming they're impotent and could Clair place her healing hands upon them

To be fair there are a couple of good points like Clair's healing powers having a scientific rationale . All too often in these type of stories there's either no explanation at all for the healing hands or it's all explained via vague mystical nonsense but here it's down to human evolution and DNA . There's also a very spectacular car crash the likes of which I haven't seen in very many big budget Hollywood movies never mind a TVM so at least the stuntmen earned their fees with this production

Ellen Burstyn's 1980 film of the same name is a far better film. This one left me cold... don't understand why the makers felt the need to do a "TV update" of the original story. If you've seen this TV version, do yourself a favor and rent or buy the 1980 video -- it is terrific.

This remake improves on the original in some ways but absolutely does not in others. The story has potential, but has not been done well. In this version, Clare (Edna in the other version) and her lover have more chemistry, but a crazy guy committing mayhem in the hospital does not work any better than having her lover go berserk in the original version. I have nothing against violence in film, but it does not help the story and is especially confusing in this version.

As we learn more about how human kind is evolving, I think this movie has more relevance as time continues on. I just had the chance to view the original starring Ellen Burstyn, and the original did have a lot of heart but I also felt that Dana Delaney's portrayal of someone coming to terms with this newfound ability was equally realistic and more pertinent to today. I love Rita Moreno as her always positive and encouraging friend. The only part of the movie I could have done without was the over dramatic scene in the hospital. I saw this on TV when it first aired in 1999 and wanted to purchase a copy of it immediately, but was unable to find any for sale. I definitely preferred this versions ending more than the original.

I saw this on TV about 4 years ago and really liked it. It inspired me to buy the movie version on VHS with Burstyn. The other version is good also, but not in my memory as good as this one. Either one is a movie that will move you. Highly recommended.

I LOVE both versions of this movie. I have the 1980 version and I have this one on VHS, but I would like to have it on DVD. They are both inspirational ♥