***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I really wanted to like this movie about a mother and former wife named Kate (Leslie Hope) who falls in love with her female employer Mac (Wendy Crewson), forcing her to face her true emotions as well as the less than supportive reactions of family and friends. The film's message of tolerance is certainly timely and the production seemed to have a lot going for it. When the show aired on the Lifetime Channel (under the title AN UNEXPECTED LOVE), advertisements prominently mentioned Writer and Director Lee Rose, who is apparently highly respected from previous projects, though I haven't seen them. I have seen some of Ms. Crewson other films, though, and I think she's one of the most vastly underrated actresses in the business. I figured it would be a treat seeing her play a character so different from her typical roles and sure enough, she shines as usual. I had no problem seeing how anyone, male or female, could fall in love with the spunky but soft-hearted Mac. The problem is that it takes two to Tango, as they say. No story about any serious relationship can work without two characters we can believe in and identify with equally. Unfortunately, THIS MUCH I KNOW gives us only one. The character Kate, who carries the all important burden of making us feel what it's like to experience a homosexual attraction for the first time, is so poorly and unappealingly drawn nobody could possibly relate to her as a human being, let alone as a lesbian.
Sadly, the script utterly scuttles any empathy we might have felt for Kate long before the relationship even begins. Barely five minutes into the film, she announces to her husband that she wants a divorce. Though a few earlier scenes revealed him to be the standard stereotypical workaholic who never devotes enough time to his family, the couple seem to be on amiable terms. Because the script fails to show us any of the tension between the two or even a single attempt on Kate's part to work out the problems with her husband, we're left feeling her decision to end the marriage is impulsive and premature.
Though Kate briefly expresses concern for her two children, without hardly a pause she entrusts them by day to her stern mother who is so obnoxiously caustic we could easily imagine the plot evolving into a very different sort of message movie about abused children. Meanwhile, Kate concentrates on finding employment. We see her apply for two jobs, one in a fashion shop, the other in a beauty salon. Each time she's turned down for the unfortunate but perfectly understandable reason that she's got no experience, and each time she responds by personally insulting her interviewer. Finally, while sulking outside of a real estate office, a concerned employee approaches her, which triggers Kate to verbally assault her with an angry tirade about how she gave up so much to raise a family and is now unfairly being denied the chance to start a career. Instead of telling her to go sob on someone else's shoulder, the patient employee amazingly invites her in for a cup of coffee. Then even more incredibly, the office manager Mac offers her a job as a receptionist on the spot. Kate expresses her suspicion that she's being offered the job out of sympathy, but Mac insists that she really needed to hire a receptionist. Mere minutes later, though, we find out that big hearted Mac has been putting up with an obviously incompetent employee for years simply because he's the brother of a former lover who died. In other words, yes, Kate probably did get the job purely out of sympathy! Later, while Mac is trying to close a deal on a piece of property, Kate persuades the reluctant customers by making a vague comment about the house's inferior foundation, something she later says she picked up watching Bob Villa. This essentially underhanded tactic impresses Mac so much she insists that Kate complete a real estate exam then promptly promotes her to a full-time agent. So far, then, we've seen that our protagonist is shallow, self-pitying, and anxious to blame the entire world for her problems, yet she's not too proud to take advantage of a kind hearted soul who offers her a job out of pity and is perfectly willing to use deceptive techniques to advance her career - not exactly the most admirable heroine.
We finally get to the meat of the plot when Kate becomes depressed one evening as her children spend their first night away from home with her ex. She turns up on Mac's doorstep looking for moral support but suddenly becomes passionate. Up until this point in the film, Kate has expressed nothing but mild curiosity about Mac's sexual preference and her abrupt display of affection comes completely out of the blue. Even Mac seems to find the unexpected change of attitude unbelievable - she tries to convince Kate that she's simply upset and mistakenly confusing a need for compassion for genuine passion. Eventually, though, Kate convinces her boss that she's sincere and the two finally become lovers. The rest of the plot focuses on her attempts to deal with all the expected obstacles: the negative reaction of her friends, the confusion of her daughter, the frustration of her ex-husband, and the outspoken disapproval of her mother when they learn of the relationship. The ex even threatens legal action to take custody of the children away from her and the mother practically disowns her. These developments would have been powerfully disturbing if the script had succeeded in establishing Kate as a likeable, sympathetic character. As it stands, though, the obstacles she faces are only frustrating in principle. They don't resonate with the viewer emotionally because the character failed to make any emotional connections.
********SPOLIER ALERT*********
The script makes one last misstep by superficially resolving the problems just in time for a happy ending. The ex-husband suddenly has a change of heart and drops his legal actions, the daughter works out her confusion and accepts Kate's decision, and even the frigid mother grudgingly comes around, at least a bit. Too bad real life isn't like the movies, where everybody always lives happily ever after. On the other hand, maybe it's more of a shame that films claiming to deal seriously with socially difficult issues ultimately cop out and paint a rosy but false picture of the situation.
Much of the problem with the film, I'm sorry to say, is an extremely uneven performance by Leslie Hope. She's fairly convincing when the script requires her to boldly express defiance or rebellion, as during the angry speech outside the realty office. But in the scenes that require some sensitivity or passion, she projects all the warmth and intimacy of a box of frozen fish sticks. It's almost as if somebody told Ms. Hope she was making a socially important film and she responded by focusing exclusively on the message while neglecting to get in touch with or understand her character as a human being. I never believed for a moment that Kate really felt anything for Mac, or even her children, or anyone else for that matter. She comes across as a walking, talking billboard for gay and women's rights but fails to give us any reason to care about her character in the least.
There's no question THIS MUCH I KNOW delivers a message society needs to hear. But good drama should do more than just make people think about an important issue. It should also make them feel the issue. With a better written script and a more sensitive leading lady, the film could have made a real and lasting impact on the viewer. Instead, I suspect the lesson of THIS MUCH I KNOW will be forgotten as quickly as the movie itself.
Sadly, the script utterly scuttles any empathy we might have felt for Kate long before the relationship even begins. Barely five minutes into the film, she announces to her husband that she wants a divorce. Though a few earlier scenes revealed him to be the standard stereotypical workaholic who never devotes enough time to his family, the couple seem to be on amiable terms. Because the script fails to show us any of the tension between the two or even a single attempt on Kate's part to work out the problems with her husband, we're left feeling her decision to end the marriage is impulsive and premature.
Though Kate briefly expresses concern for her two children, without hardly a pause she entrusts them by day to her stern mother who is so obnoxiously caustic we could easily imagine the plot evolving into a very different sort of message movie about abused children. Meanwhile, Kate concentrates on finding employment. We see her apply for two jobs, one in a fashion shop, the other in a beauty salon. Each time she's turned down for the unfortunate but perfectly understandable reason that she's got no experience, and each time she responds by personally insulting her interviewer. Finally, while sulking outside of a real estate office, a concerned employee approaches her, which triggers Kate to verbally assault her with an angry tirade about how she gave up so much to raise a family and is now unfairly being denied the chance to start a career. Instead of telling her to go sob on someone else's shoulder, the patient employee amazingly invites her in for a cup of coffee. Then even more incredibly, the office manager Mac offers her a job as a receptionist on the spot. Kate expresses her suspicion that she's being offered the job out of sympathy, but Mac insists that she really needed to hire a receptionist. Mere minutes later, though, we find out that big hearted Mac has been putting up with an obviously incompetent employee for years simply because he's the brother of a former lover who died. In other words, yes, Kate probably did get the job purely out of sympathy! Later, while Mac is trying to close a deal on a piece of property, Kate persuades the reluctant customers by making a vague comment about the house's inferior foundation, something she later says she picked up watching Bob Villa. This essentially underhanded tactic impresses Mac so much she insists that Kate complete a real estate exam then promptly promotes her to a full-time agent. So far, then, we've seen that our protagonist is shallow, self-pitying, and anxious to blame the entire world for her problems, yet she's not too proud to take advantage of a kind hearted soul who offers her a job out of pity and is perfectly willing to use deceptive techniques to advance her career - not exactly the most admirable heroine.
We finally get to the meat of the plot when Kate becomes depressed one evening as her children spend their first night away from home with her ex. She turns up on Mac's doorstep looking for moral support but suddenly becomes passionate. Up until this point in the film, Kate has expressed nothing but mild curiosity about Mac's sexual preference and her abrupt display of affection comes completely out of the blue. Even Mac seems to find the unexpected change of attitude unbelievable - she tries to convince Kate that she's simply upset and mistakenly confusing a need for compassion for genuine passion. Eventually, though, Kate convinces her boss that she's sincere and the two finally become lovers. The rest of the plot focuses on her attempts to deal with all the expected obstacles: the negative reaction of her friends, the confusion of her daughter, the frustration of her ex-husband, and the outspoken disapproval of her mother when they learn of the relationship. The ex even threatens legal action to take custody of the children away from her and the mother practically disowns her. These developments would have been powerfully disturbing if the script had succeeded in establishing Kate as a likeable, sympathetic character. As it stands, though, the obstacles she faces are only frustrating in principle. They don't resonate with the viewer emotionally because the character failed to make any emotional connections.
********SPOLIER ALERT*********
The script makes one last misstep by superficially resolving the problems just in time for a happy ending. The ex-husband suddenly has a change of heart and drops his legal actions, the daughter works out her confusion and accepts Kate's decision, and even the frigid mother grudgingly comes around, at least a bit. Too bad real life isn't like the movies, where everybody always lives happily ever after. On the other hand, maybe it's more of a shame that films claiming to deal seriously with socially difficult issues ultimately cop out and paint a rosy but false picture of the situation.
Much of the problem with the film, I'm sorry to say, is an extremely uneven performance by Leslie Hope. She's fairly convincing when the script requires her to boldly express defiance or rebellion, as during the angry speech outside the realty office. But in the scenes that require some sensitivity or passion, she projects all the warmth and intimacy of a box of frozen fish sticks. It's almost as if somebody told Ms. Hope she was making a socially important film and she responded by focusing exclusively on the message while neglecting to get in touch with or understand her character as a human being. I never believed for a moment that Kate really felt anything for Mac, or even her children, or anyone else for that matter. She comes across as a walking, talking billboard for gay and women's rights but fails to give us any reason to care about her character in the least.
There's no question THIS MUCH I KNOW delivers a message society needs to hear. But good drama should do more than just make people think about an important issue. It should also make them feel the issue. With a better written script and a more sensitive leading lady, the film could have made a real and lasting impact on the viewer. Instead, I suspect the lesson of THIS MUCH I KNOW will be forgotten as quickly as the movie itself.