It’s hard to dislike this 1983 movie, if only because of the warm glow of liberal well-being John Sayles’s work always gives off—it’s a chance to bask in noble attitudes. But Sayles’s talent as a writer isn’t well served by his efforts as a filmmaker. The basic affinity for the medium isn’t there, and he never seems in control of the content of his shots, letting all kinds of extraneous information and contradictory implications bleed into his images and obscure the relatively simple dramatic points he’s trying to make. Linda Griffiths stars as a mother of two who impulsively has an affair with a female teacher (Jane Halleren); her marriage collapses and her friends desert her, leaving her to build a new life. With Jon DeVries, Jo Henderson, and Sayles himself—who reads his own lines with a sense of comic timing he can’t quite impart to the other cast members. 110 min.
