While this is listed as a drama, this very pleasant slice of life TV movie is a delightful surprise with one minor exception. It's the story of the 40 something Lauren Hutton and Perry King desperate to try to get back into life after their youngest daughter goes to college. It's surprising to Hutton, one of the best glamor girls of the 1980's made to look a decade older, originally seen in a wig that was more 70's style then changing into the wig that audiences still tease Julie Christie in "Heaven Can Wait" about, while Perry King's husband is the first to get a make-over. Half way through the film, Hutton gets her own makeover with the plastic surgeon going into graphic detail with both passive/aggressive insults and sage advice.
I wonder if this was possibly a pilot for a comic drama series as the structure of the script certainly suggests that. It's nice to see Hutton being frumpy which shows her lack of ego, and up until she does get work done, she looks older than her onscreen mother, June Lockhart. Priscilla Barnes is very funny as Hutton's confidante, a gay divorcee delightfully talking about the 165 pounds she lost after her divorce. Karen Valentine is also amusing as the nutrition adviser who suggests an all veggie diet to King, and Lockhart steals the holiday scene by bringing out her traditional cookies after Hutton prepares a healthier alternative that may look delicious but in description sounds disgusting.
The one unfunny element in this comes from the never amusing David Leisure who actually appeared in the "Golden Girls" spinoff "Empty Nest" and always managed a groan rather than a guffaw as one of the neighbors. He plays King's advice giving coworker and brings every moment he is onscreen down with his forced line delivery. The office subplot would have been so much funnier and insightful with a different actor in the part. So while this movie has some rather dated ideals that scream 1980's, it is surprisingly well done with even the most ridiculous twists quite funny especially the delicious absurdities of how Hutton and King end up acting and looking in the last half hour of the film.
I wonder if this was possibly a pilot for a comic drama series as the structure of the script certainly suggests that. It's nice to see Hutton being frumpy which shows her lack of ego, and up until she does get work done, she looks older than her onscreen mother, June Lockhart. Priscilla Barnes is very funny as Hutton's confidante, a gay divorcee delightfully talking about the 165 pounds she lost after her divorce. Karen Valentine is also amusing as the nutrition adviser who suggests an all veggie diet to King, and Lockhart steals the holiday scene by bringing out her traditional cookies after Hutton prepares a healthier alternative that may look delicious but in description sounds disgusting.
The one unfunny element in this comes from the never amusing David Leisure who actually appeared in the "Golden Girls" spinoff "Empty Nest" and always managed a groan rather than a guffaw as one of the neighbors. He plays King's advice giving coworker and brings every moment he is onscreen down with his forced line delivery. The office subplot would have been so much funnier and insightful with a different actor in the part. So while this movie has some rather dated ideals that scream 1980's, it is surprisingly well done with even the most ridiculous twists quite funny especially the delicious absurdities of how Hutton and King end up acting and looking in the last half hour of the film.
