DANIELLE STEEL'S MIXED BLESSINGS

US, 1995, 86 minutes, Colour.
Gabrielle Charteris, Bruce Greenwood, Scott Baio, James Naughton, Bess Armstrong, Bruce Weitz, Alexandra Paul.
Directed by Bethany Rooney.

The mixed blessings of the title of this adaptation from a Danielle Steel story are children. However, the film comes down strongly on the side of children and happy marriages.

The structure of the film is straightforward, a focus on three couples who marry on the same day and who attend the same doctor concerned about fertility and having children. A young couple marry and are full of dreams. However, the wife still has ambitions to be an actress, the husband finds that he is sterile. When his wife becomes pregnant, the marriage collapses. When he wants a reconciliation, his wife has had an abortion. Distraught, he works with children, visits the orphanage where he grew up, meets a single mother with a daughter at the beach - and, of course, they fall in love as well as adopt a young boy from the orphanage.

The second couple is middle-aged, the wife desperate to have a child. They are both successful professional people but, after a year, discover medical complications that prevent the wife from conceiving. This causes some kind of emotional breakdown and she wants to separate from her husband, blaming herself that she cannot give him a child. Eventually they effect a reconciliation, adopt a baby (but there is almost a setback as the natural couple (parents?) want the child back but finally decide to have it adopted) and, rather miraculously, the wife becomes pregnant.

The third couple is older, lawyer and judge. He is about to become a grandfather, he marries his long-time colleague. She decides that she would like to be pregnant, they have artificial insemination processes, she has a miscarriage, eventually giving birth to twins, one of whom dies. She grieves but comes to terms with it and the film is able to have a very, very happy ending.

James Naughton and Bess Armstrong are very good as the older couple. Scott Baio gives a moving performance as the would-be father whose marriage collapses. Gabrielle Charteris and Bruce Greenwood are the middle-aged couple (Bruce Greenwood showing he could be a villain in Double Indemnity as well as portraying JFK in 13 Days). The direction is by Bethany Rooney and has a very assured female approach and feminine touch to the story.

1. The popularity of Danielle Steel's stories? Marriage, love, children, family? Difficulties and people coming through them? Generally in an affluent and comfortable atmosphere?

2. The settings in Seattle, the city, the homes, the doctor's surgery? The beach? The musical score and its mood?
3. The title, children as mixed blessings?

4. The structure of the film, the three weddings on the same day, the small interconnections through the doctor and fertility?

5. Issues of women and their desire to have children or not have children? Barbara and her not wanting children, yet conceiving and having an abortion? Diana and her desperate wanting to have a child, her sisters and other relations and their children? Pilar and her wanting to have a child with the time clock ticking? Her stepdaughter and her insensitivity as she was pregnant? The unmarried mother, her story about becoming pregnant, her love for her daughter? Her being prepared to adopt if her husband was sterile? The range of motivations of the women?

6. The marriage ceremonies, their moods, styles, love? Commitment? The transition to eleven months later, discussions about pregnancy? The first anniversary and celebration or forgetting? The attempts for pregnancy? The strength of the relationships, the difficulties, coming through difficulties with patience and loving fidelity?

7. Charlie and Barbara, her career, his going to the doctor and finding himself sterile? The tensions, her forgetting the anniversary? His being willing to reconcile? Her going to Las Vegas, her becoming pregnant, telling him and discovering the truth? His turning her out of the home, going to visit her, wanting a reconciliation, discovering that she had had an abortion? His being with the kids, playing, at the beach, the encounter with Beth, her daughter? Going to the orphanage, playing with the boy and asking him if he would like to be adopted? A happy future? (And a sensible portrayal of contemporary Sisters not wearing veils but wearing a uniform with a cross?)

8. Diana and Andrew, professional lives, their attempts for her to become pregnant, going to the doctor, discovering the effect of the IUD? Her disappointment, depression, her outburst against her sister at the family dinner? Her wanting a separation, Andrew not being able to understand, trying to give her space and time? His visits, her pushing him away, thinking he would blame her in twenty years time? The possibilities of surrogacy - and her disdain at the attitude of the couple wanting to become pregnant for the money? Her filing for divorce? Andrew, his continued patience, understanding and sensitivity? The ideal husband? The meeting again, her return, the possibility of building a marriage on this experience? Adoption, being present at the birth of the baby, the mother giving the baby to Diana? Caring for it for two months, the parents wanting to take it away, their change of heart? The extraordinary pregnancy of Diana and its effect on her? Their having the two children?

9. Pilar and Brad, their work together, their getting married, his daughter being pregnant? Pilar and her wanting to be pregnant and the stepdaughter's hostile reaction? Her father's reprimand? The tests, the visits to the doctor, the artificial insemination? Her miscarriage? Pregnant again, the twins, the joy, the difficulties of the birth, the death of the little girl, Pilar's grief? The funeral, her beginning to hold the little boy? Stepmother and stepdaughter and their children, the reconciliation?

10. The dramatic impact of this kind of soap opera presentation of serious themes? The emotional response? The daytime television response - valid nonetheless?