The Book of Ruth

I just saw this movie last evening. I have the following problem with the ending. No effort was made at any time to stop the abuse toward the young man which I believe drove him further towards abuse than away from it. There appeared to be no intervention to help stop the drinking or the drugs, only criticism. There were only negative reactions to his actions from others, other than from his young wife. What bothered me is that the emphasis at the ending was towards the young wife remembering positively some of the actions of the mother towards her as she 1) owns the home, 2) gets to go live with her very wealthy aunt,3) gets to keep the baby. There is never any indication of how the young man will be treated, will he be visited, allowed to see his son, etc. I think men are not protrayed very well at all in this film, and I am not sure that women are either. That's the end of my comments.

This movie is defintley for tv, but it was acted superbly. The mom makes it easy for you to hate her. Nicholle who plays Ruth, i was surprised she took this role. I guess she wants to take on bigger movies and bigger roles, and producers can see her acting abilities. i remember seeing her only on "the nanny" and "beethoven". Well, its worth watching this movie...but i should warn u... can u say depressing. but something about it makes u stay watching. just like about every other tv movie iv'e watched. ok theyre telling me i need more then 10 lines so ill go on. Her husband is soo ugly and wierd why would she marry that hyena. her deluded mom makes her feel so worthless that she would even consider it. man he was crazy. and then the end just when u think things couldint get any worse they do. and its so true but sad how even though her mom treated her soo bad she still loved her and felt bad for --what happened-. although lol its probably obvious. Her kid is the only thing that keeps her going i think. i hate when guys take advantage of innocent girls its soo cliche. shiz at least if ur gonna be a man whore at least make it original so we wont die of boredom.

This movie teaches the great importance of finding ones self and making your own way. It shows how much someone can influence you and how you may not see that influence until they are gone. Christine Lahti is fabulous in this. She portrays a cold hearted widow that takes out her pain and past mistakes on her soft spoken daughter Ruth played by Nicolle Tom. Nicolle also does a great job, very different from Maggie she played on The Nanny.She is very deep and emotional, not typical of her previous roles. I hope to see her in more films soon. I really enjoyed this movie. One to watch with your mom, after seeing Maylene you might really appreciate yours! I hope they show this one again soon!

This is a comment rather than a review. The description on this title is misleading, i.e.,: "Tensions arise when a newlywed has her husband move into the house of her verbally abusive mother."

Although the mother has many emotional and mental issues and clearly has mistreated her daughter, the daughter has similar issues and marries a rock-bottom loser, who moves in with the mother, allows her to support them and verbally abuses the mother. The mother is appropriately shocked at her daughter's choice in a husband and shows more compassion and patience by tolerating their obnoxious behavior as they take advantage of her. In my view, this is a most unpleasant movie. I have not watched all of it, but I hope the mother and daughter can come to some resolution of their mental disorders and their relationship with each other. The acting is fine, it's just not a story that appeals to me.

I can only top Kaagaard's regret by saying I wish I had recorded the second hour. I recorded and saw the first hour of this excellent story, but I have not seen the ending; so I don't know how it comes out. I can only wait for reruns or for it to come out on video--which I suspect and hope that it will. (Third alternative: it's based on a novel so I could find and read it.)

Kaagaard is right about the acting, though I would add that I was watching the competition between Christine Lahti and Nicholle Tom to see which one was going to out-act the other, and it was close. I liked that you could sympathize with both mother and daughter and at the same time feel that they were both obviously wrong about some things.