American Playhouse (TV Series) Andre's Mother (1990) User Reviews

Plain and simple

[KUAlum26 · 9/10 · 13 July 2005]

The 1990 PBS offering of a Terrence McNally play(more like a playlet,since this barely covers an hour's time) is a very simple story of the strained relations between a be-grieved lover and his lover's mother in the wake of said lover's death. The difference,of course,is that the lovers in this instance are gay men and the mother has had extreme difficulty dealing with this fact,which makes her son's death from AIDS all the more painful for her.

This show works on so many levels. McNally's play is chatty--perhaps to a fault--but it never fails to convey the friction of the relationships that Andre's mother has with not only his lover Cal(Richard Thomas,almost saintly here)but also with her mother(Sylvia Sindey) and,of course, Andre himself. The use of symbolism(mostly of white balloons),classical music and Shakespearian verse creates an almost ethereal air to this show. It might seem to be another sainted,gay people dealing with death and intolerance movie from these elements,but the brevity and care that this show is made with allows enough emotional bonding with the characters without tiring the viewer("Philadelphia" comes to mind here)along the way.

A sad and reflective film that,if you bond with it in any way,you will want to know more about these characters after it is over. More of a snapshot than a portrait,but in serious entertainment these days, I personally find that highly refreshing.

An excellent melodrama about understanding homosexuality.

[Tom Murray · 9/10 · 12 May 2001]

In this excellent melodrama, a man's boyfriend, André, has died of AIDS and André's mother (Sada Thompson) cannot come to grips with the reality of the situation. She feels that the man (Richard Thomas) has seduced her son into the evils of homosexuality and thereby caused his death. Despite her rejection of him, he persists in trying to establish a relationship with Andrés mother. The film is about ideas, feelings and ideas about feelings. The films starts by dealing with feelings and then it becomes very conversational, at a deep level, about those feelings. As in the later film, Chasing Amy, there is much to be learned, by heterosexuals, about homosexuality.

Beautiful and Sad

[Red7Eric · 9/10 · 3 April 2004]

It seems that all of the "gay" dramas created in the 80s and 90s focused on either coming out or AIDS, to the point where gay audiences have seen way too many of these films and are more than ready for something else: would a romantic comedy be too much to ask? A crime caper? Anything??!! However... even if this is your mindset, "Andre's Mother" is worth your time. AIDS is a significant subplot, but the heart of the film is the rocky relationship between Andre's conservative mother and his lover, Cal. Andre himself is never seen; as such, he achieves an almost saintly presence in the film -- everyone seems to adore him. But in this movie, it works. All that Andre's mother and Andre's lover have in common is their unconditional love for the same man. The central question of the film is: is that enough? The performances are stellar and the writing is both spare and profound. Is this film availble to buy or rent? I'm not sure, but ... if you can, you should.

A beautiful film

[blanche-2 · 10/10 · 1 October 2005]

Terrence McNally's "Andre's Mother" had a profound effect on me when I saw it. In the '80s and early '90s, there were a plethora of AIDS dramas, but I think this has to be one of the best.

The film basically deals with the problems of Andre's mother coping with losing her son and meeting his lover, played by Richard Thomas. The conceit here is that her son is never seen, only talked about. It works extremely well. Thompson portrays a very conservative, stiff, uncomfortable woman who is unsettled when she arrives in New York and has to deal with her son's life. Sylvia Sidney plays Thompson's mother, and you can see the genesis of a lot of Thompson's problems are based in her rocky relationship with her own mother. Both women give magnificent performances. Thompson's every move and facial expression is perfect. At her son's service, the mourners stand with balloons to release. Thompson stands like a martinet, awkwardly holding her balloon, her facial expression blank. "I don't think she has any idea about the balloons," someone whispers. And then she flashes on being on the beach with her son when he was a child. When it is time to let go of the balloon, she is ready, perhaps for the first time, to truly love him as he was and to let go of everything but that love.

Richard Thomas is excellent as a very self-possessed man, being polite as he endeavors to share what he knew of his lover with Thompson. His almost business-like handing Thompson a photo is softened by his great pride in the relationship he shared with her son. Only when he finds that holding back his own emotions haven't worked to reach this woman, who seems to him to be made of granite rock, does he let go.

I highly recommend this amazing and wonderful movie to anyone who has an opportunity to see it.

*I'm referring to Thompson's son as Andre, but I'm not sure that was his name. I thought the title came from Richard Thomas' outburst toward her toward the end of the film, when he compares her to "Andre's mother" in a comic strip, a woman who never did anything but was talked about a good deal. "You're Andre's mother!" he screams at her. Perhaps the young man's actual name was never used, perhaps it was Andre, or perhaps I am not remembering correctly.

The real focus is on Sada Thompson and Sylvia Sidney

[richard.fuller1 · 11 October 2001]

This was supposed to be about a bond between the mother of a man who died of AIDS and his gay lover, but the real scene stealers were the moments between Andre's mother, Sada Thompson, and her mother, Sylvia Sidney, and how the relationship from her own mother prevented her from showing her feelings now. Sidney made one of the most compelling statements about how their family was coming to an end as the only grandson, Andre, was gay and had died of AIDS, leaving no offspring. In a restaurant, she candidly asks the waiter if he is gay, and he candidly answers. These were the moments that drove this story, not Richard Thomas as the non-infected lover of the late Andre. Thomas was merely depicting betrayal in a relationship, but Thompson and Sidney were portraying one of the few performances of a parent who cared for the child but not the lifestyle, and so few performances like these have been seen.

Touching story of two gay lovers, one whom we never meet

[CatFather1 · 10/10 · 2 May 2005]

"Andre's Mother," based on Terrance McNally's short play, is an episodic tale of Cal, Andre's lover, as he deals with Andre's rigid mother (Sada Thompson) and grandmother (Sylvia Sydney) when mother visits from Texas to New York City. We never meet Andre -- he is off somewhere...in a play outside New York on one visit, or somewhere else in another, or dead. This is no spoiler, for the film opens with the memorial service for Andre (with a Mozart aria being sung that is, of course, about a very special love), and that service ties all the episodes together. But what we learn is the tender love between the two men, the love Andre felt for his mother, and Cal's anguish that he can't seem to break through her stern distaste for Andre's homosexuality. Nonetheless, it is obvious she also deeply loves her son. The film is touching in every way, for these people -- as portrayed by all the actors -- have deeply touched each other's lives. Some of the lines display the depth of feeling: "I'm the writer in the family," Cal tells the people at the memorial service; the "family" is he and Andre. And when he raise his eyes and says simply into the large hall, "I love you" to his departed partner, you know he does. This is a touching, wonderful film that also shows beautifully the need for and rewards of love and tolerance.

sympathetic

[rdh-6 · 10/10 · 4 December 1999]

Richard Thomas at his sensitive best. Convincing Convicting some of the dialogue is a bit naff

Historically important but unwatchable

[jm10701 · 27 September 2014]

What a disappointment! The screenplay is so heavily stilted and pretentious that it crushes its mediocre star and sinks even gifted supporting actors. Not a single word sounds like a real, late-20th-century human being talking, but like 19th-century actors declaiming from a stage badly-written lines they've memorized but don't understand.

Richard Thomas is TERRIBLY miscast in the crucial lead role; his acting skill is far too limited to place such a ponderous burden on his slim shoulders. But even great actors like Sada Thompson and Sylvia Sidney are painfully unbelievable; the dialog is so relentlessly contrived that they can't do much more with it than Thomas does. The director Deborah Reinisch (whoever she is - she's deservedly done only minor TV work since this disaster) does nothing to help the actors cope with the impossible script.

I thank God for Terrence McNally's vital contribution to the recent dramatic changes in gay life in the United States - including this very play - and I love him dearly; but this production is a mess. It's historically important but unwatchable.

It might make for better reading than watching, and it almost surely would be better in live theatre than projected on a screen. It's so plodding and heavy-handed that the 50 minutes seemed like three hours to me.