KATE'S SECRET

US, 1986, 100 minutes, Colour.
Meredith Baxter, Ben Masters, Edward Asner, Mackenzie Phillips, Shari Belafonte, Summer Phoenix.
Directed by Alan Arthur Seidelman.

Kate's Secret is one of the many American telemovies focusing on the dramatising of an illness. The films are designed for the widest possible audience, informing them about medical and social conditions, their repercussions. They are also designed to help r,,ieu;ibers of the audience who might be suffering from these illnesses and are afraid to communicate to families and doctors.

Kate’s Secret is bulimia, the starving of oneself publicly and then the gorging of oneself in private and then vomiting up the food so greedily eaten. It is a psychological problem. It focuses on the feelings of inadequacy and compensation ~ but the condition also has physical repercussions as the patient damages organs, especially in the retching and vomiting.

The film is a good treatment of this particular problem, dramatised to give confidence to audiences. Meredith Baxter Birney, familiar from the television series Family Ties as well as many telemovies, is credible in the central role. Audiences identify with her, are curious about her condition, want her to go through the therapy for recovery. Ed Asner has a supporting role as a doctor.

Some critics were harsh on the film as a glossy treatment of the issue. However, these American social telemovies are an excellent means of cornunication for a wide audience.

1. Telemovie style, treatment of a significant ailment? the communication by story, credibility of characters and situations? Geared towards the wide audience?

2. California backgrounds, affluence, homes, careers? The Malibu beaches? Yuppy atmosphere?

3. Audience knowledge of bulimia and anorexia? Audience interest, seeing the illnesses dramatised?

4. Audiences identifying with the characters and situations? The family? Kate as wife, her strictness, exercise and aerobics? Her relationship with her husband, trying to please hie, fear of losing his? The threat of Monica? jack and his work with the law, working fori promotion? The daughter, the school, joining the Brownies? Kate's mother, her presence. the love-hatred relationship?

5. Kate in herself: the importance of the absent father, the intruding mother, the mother resenting what happened to her, wanting to please her husband, fearing that he would leave, the poor self-image, exercise and her narrow views? Audience reaction to her gorging herself and being sick? The parallel At the alcoholic? Hiding and concealing from others? The dizziness, her fainting, the crash with her daughter? Having to face the truth?

6. Hospital: shame, fear of losing Jack, embarrassment with her mother? Her being introduced to the hospital, the patients? The discussions with Patch? The meals and the awkwardness, the nurses and the treatment, the group therapy and the clashes? Dr. Resnick? Kate discovering her emotions? her mother and Jack coming to the therapy? The shopping? Patch and hiding? Her escape for the party? The effect, her collapse? Dr. Resnick helping her to face reality? About pleasing Jack, her mother? The unfinished business? The sequence at the airport? The truth and the reconciliation? her ability to face the future?

7. Jack and his relationship with his wife, ambitions for career? Working with Monica? His being hurt by Kate? His realising his self-centredness? His blaming himself for not noticing what was wrong with her? His visit to the therapy, the party, the final reuniting?

8. Becky and her mother's strictness, seeing her mother so strict? School, becoming a Brownie, her disappointment with her parents' absence, the crash?

9. Kate's mother and her interfering, her husband leaving, the expectations about men? Her wanting Kate to be pleasing to her husband, living vicariously through her daughter? The shock about the illness, her primary concern about Jack, his pointing this out to her? Her inability to cope? The tension between mother and daughter? Reconciliation at the airport?

10. Gail and her friendship with Kate, the exercise, their telling secrets and gossip, her hurt at Kate's inability to tell her the truth, visiting her in the hospital?

11. Dr. Resnick and his firm stance, confronting Kate with the truth, speaking clearly to Jack, the therapy sessions and his handling of each of the patients? His firmness about Kate's progress and lack of progress? Helping her to face the future? The sequences of the Hospital Board meeting and the understanding of patients and treatment?

12. The range of women in hospital: fat, concerned about image, resentful? Their clashes with each other? Hostility towards Kate? Patch and her story, her mother's dominance, being a model, wanting to lose weight? Friendship with Kate? Shoplifting?. Her hiding place and escape? Her death?

13. The American style of the film, universal interest and appeal? The focus on an ailment, courses, psychological and physical symptoms, therapy and healing?