THE RUSSELL GIRL

US, 2008, 100 minutes, Colour.
Amber Tamblyn, Jennifer Ehle, Henry Czerny, Paul Wesley, Tim DeKay?, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
Directed by Jeff Bleckner.

The Russell Girl is a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, geared for the widest possible television audience, especially home audiences.

The film has a strong cast, Amber Tamblyn portraying a young woman in her twenties who is diagnosed with leukaemia and returns home. She cannot communicate this to her parents. They are played by Tim DeKay? and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. However, there is grief in her past, babysitting a young child who accidentally died. The mother of the child, Jennifer Ehle, lives opposite and has been grieving, neglecting her family for six years. Henry Czerny plays her considerate husband.

The film moves as one might one might expect, the pressures on the young woman, the news of her being accepted into medical school, meeting again her high school love, trying to approach the grieving mother, looked after by her very busy mother. Eventually, the young woman makes peace with the mother of the dead baby (who transforms into a loving person rather dramatically quickly). The film ends positively with the family accompanying the young woman to hospital for her treatment.

1. Hallmark Hall of Fame films? For the wide audience? Popular stories? Accessible characters? Sentiment?

2. The opening in Chicago, the panorama of the city? The end? And what has gone on in between? Driving across America? The small town, homes, gas stations, panel beaters? Ordinariness? The musical score?

3. The title, the focus on Sarah? Her going to the doctor, the news about the leukaemia? Her ringing her mother, the decision to go home? Yet her not being able to tell her parents? The news about her acceptance into medical school? The spirit of joy and celebration? Her meeting Evan, the interlude on the freeway, scratching her car as she remembered the death of the child? His fixing the car, the date? Their past, his story, Texas? His father and helping him to recover his speech after the stroke? His sympathy? Love for Sarah?

4. The Russell family? Gayle and her continually being busy? Her relationship with her husband – and the memory of the death? The argument about the psychiatrist? The mother wanting to take over the daughter? The arrangement of the party? The father more sympathetic? Daniel, the banter with her brother?

5. Lorraine Morrissey, seeing Sarah come home, the effect on her, her relationship with her husband, her sons, the migraines, distant from her family? Her restoring the furniture? The approach of Sarah, her shutting the door? Sarah’s visit, the discussions about the box? Her taking on the small box and restoring it? Her husband and his treatment, her retreat to her room, the migraines, her grief? The meeting with Howard Morrissey, coming to the Russell house, warning Sarah away? Sarah in the room with Lorraine, Howard speaking strongly, the issue of blame, Lorraine admitting that the screws for the latch were faulty, Howard unable to fix it, the boy’s distracting Sarah, Sarah as a teenager, the death of the child? Lorraine and her explaining her thinking about the child, imagining her growing up? The reconciliation with Sarah?

6. Sarah, her inability to tell her parents, the experiences of illness, Lorraine meeting her in the street? Lorraine confronting her, threatening to tell her parents? The final admission of the truth? Her wanting to leave by herself? Her telling Evan?

7. Her return, with her parents, going to the hospital?

8. Audiences responding to a woman with an illness, leukaemia? Handling the situation? Her feelings of guilt about the past, blaming herself, keeping away from people? The possibilities of some kind of change – for a better life?