DANIELLE STEEL’S SAFE HARBOUR

US, 2007, 110 minutes, Colour.
Melissa Gilbert, Brad Johnson, Leana Liberato.
Directed by William Corcoran.

Danielle Steel was very popular in the television film world of the mid-1990s with so many of her novels being made into telemovies. In 2007, her novel Safe Harbour was filmed by William Corcoran, a veteran television director of almost thirty years. Melissa Gilbert who had appeared in the Danielle Steel Zoya is the central character, a Frenchwoman who came to the United States to study and married a scientific genius. He and his bipolar son are killed in a plane crash and she and her daughter survive, the mother retiring into seclusion in grief. Brad Johnson plays a divorced artist whom the young daughter meets on the beach and befriends.

This soap opera is very sweet and soft, easy watching for those who want to have an emotional experience. The cast is very sympathetic which makes the film more attractive. However, just towards the end, possibility too packed two incidents change the direction of the screenplay, one expected as the mother goes to work with the homeless in the San Francisco streets and the other, semi-expected, a betrayal by her dead husband.

This kind of material is very popular, accepts the reality of hardships in life – yet, is set amongst affluent people in beautiful homes. However, this time, with the focus on the street people of San Francisco, Danielle Steel is doing a bit of evangelising for people to be generous and self-giving.

1.The popularity of Danielle Steel novels? Television film adaptations? The target audience?

2.The San Francisco settings, Safe Harbour? The beach and the waves? The city? Affluent homes? The homeless and the street people? The musical score?

3.The romantic drama? Emotional? Mother and daughter? Deaths? Betrayal by friends? Working for the homeless? Divorce and parents keeping children from the other parent? The mixture of these ingredients?

4.Ophelie, her age, French background, coming to the US to study, marrying Ted? Her two children? Devoting her time to her son Chad, his bipolar condition? Her continued love for Ted? His being a genius, self-centred? Her long friendship with Andrea, talking with her, confiding in her? The shock of the finding of the letter, Andrea’s betrayal? Her cutting her off? Andrea coming with the cancer, asking Ophelie to take her son? Her love for her daughter? Her grief, being a recluse, sleeping during the day, not going out? Her daughter’s concern? Her upset at seeing Matt with Pip? Her telling him off? Her later apology? The growing friendship, meals, glad that her daughter had someone to befriend her? The return to the city? Her going to the grief groups, the recommendation that she work for the homeless? Matt supporting this? Her going, her work, the friendly people, her going on the night rounds? Their persuading her to volunteer, her going, the risks, her being taken, her being shot? In hospital, her recovery? Her falling in love with Matt, sharing the experiences, talking about their lives, her understanding of his life, his love for his daughter? The return of his wife and Ophelie’s anxiety? The meals, the outings, the ski trip? Her not being able to respond to his love? Packing up her husband’s clothes, the discovery of the letter? Her being freed? The proposal in the hospital, the wedding?

5.Matt, his divorce, his wife marrying his best friend, going to New Zealand, keeping his daughter from him? His selling his business, spending his life alone, painting? On the beach, the encounter with Pip, teaching her aspects of drawing, helping her when she cut her foot? Ophelie’s rebuke? Change of heart? The meals, the friendship, his going as substitute father with Pip to the school dance? The meals, the discussions, confiding? His daughter’s arrival, mending the broken bonds? His wife, widow, coming, trying to be seductive, his commonsensed and strong rejection of her? His anxiety about Ophelie, her work, going to the hospital, the proposal?

6.Pip, eleven years old, the grief in her family, the summer, drawing, with the dog on the beach? Befriending Matt, his help? Her wanting him to visit, the friendship, his going to the dance with her? Confiding in him? Her grief at her mother’s injuries, the hospital? Her grief about her brother? Matt and the painting with brother and sister as the gift for Ophelie?

7.Andrea, best friend, the discovery of the betrayal? Her cancer? Her son – and his being with the group at the end?

8.The background of Chad, mental illness, the time devoted to him? The effect on his father, the distance, Ophelie sending him on the plane, blaming herself for his death and her wanting a respite from caring for him?

9.Vanessa, kept from her father, her return to study, the bonds, on the ski trip, at the end? Her mother, selfish, coming to America, trying to connect with Matt again? Her failure and anger?

10.Popular ingredients – smoothly done, for an undemanding audience?