ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604120041
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Tom Shales
SOURCE: Tom Shales
When a movie is called a "women's picture," it's usually not meant as a compliment. That's unfair to women and can also be unfair to a movie, since the term is usually applied to some sudsy weeper about schemin' or sufferin' females.
On the surface, ABC's Sunday Night Movie "All She Ever Wanted" fits the description, at least where the suffering comes in. But this is a movie to unite the sexes, not divide them. It's the compassionately told story of a young married woman determined to have a child no matter what the risk to her own health and well-being.
The film, airing tonight at 9 on WSET (Channel 13), stars Marcia Cross as Rachel Stockman, a talented and vibrant woman who suffers from what is now known as bipolar disorder, .and used to be known by the more descriptive if less genteel name of manic-depressive psychosis.
Either way, it is a chemical imbalance of the brain which can bring about wild mood swings, hallucinations and rage. For Rachel, the symptoms are controlled by the drug lithium, as long as she keeps taking it. But when she becomes pregnant, she quietly stops her medication for fear it might lead to birth defects or some other health problem for her child.
The pregnancy is no accident. Rachel also stopped taking her birth control pills, much to the surprise of her husband, Tom, played with understated intensity by James Marshall. Rachel's doctor, Marilyn Towner (C.C.H. Pounder) goes into a major snit and Rachel's mother (Carrie Snodgress) is alarmed. So is Rachel's best friend Jessie (Leila Kenzle, giving the freshest performance in the film), who turns out to be a very best friend indeed.
When we first meet the Stockmans, they are trying to adopt a child, but a grim-faced bureaucrat tells them that Rachel's illness greatly reduces their chances. About 20 minutes into the film, Rachel keels over. The fainting spell is the first sign that she is pregnant.
Writer David Hill and director Michael Scott build in plenty of tension and suspense: What will happen during Rachel's next attack? She could injure herself or someone around her - or someone inside her. In a notarized letter she writes while under the stabilizing influence of lithium, she stipulates that she receive no medication to control the symptoms. She does undergo electroshock therapy, which according to this film no longer involves spasms or convulsions for the patient.
Just a little spritz in the head and things temporarily improve.
The film settles into a certain monotony after a while - one of Rachel's episodes followed by another lecture from Dr. Towner - but then there's a shocking new development. When her condition worsens, she is confined to a mental hospital. While there, Rachel attacks staff members and other patients, and doctors declare that the baby should be aborted and Rachel put back on medication.
That leads to gripping courtroom scenes in which pal Jessie proves she is not only a good friend but a good lawyer. It's clear throughout the film that Rachel is surrounded by people who love her, and she puts that love to just about every test in the book. That's when you find out who really cares, isn't it?
Obviously the role of Rachel is a virtual acting obstacle course and Cross, usually wasted on the Fox series "Melrose Place," does an outstanding job, whether manic (painting murals on walls and ceilings, refusing to sleep or eat for days) or depressed (tied to her bed sobbing, or undergoing a cold shower). In delirium, she sees visions of her little brother Jimmy, who died at the age of 4 and now, she thinks, appears to her as an angel.
It's a harrowing ordeal but you may be grateful for going through it.
Women are not from Mars and men are not from Venus, no matter what anyone says. We're all from this lumpy old planet right here, and we all like a good cry now and then. ``All She Ever Wanted'' is just what the viewer ordered.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB