Songs In Ordinary Time (2000 Telefilm/Sony DVD)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Telefilm: C-
Despite a
decent cast including Sissy Spacek, Beau Bridges and Keir Dullea, Ron Holcomb’s
Songs In Ordinary Time (2000) is a
very predictable, rather formulaic melodrama about a mother (Spacek) in the
1950s who is now raising her children by herself and is charmed by a man
(Bridges) who is more and likely a con artist than the man if her dreams. You know he’ll be bad when this turns out to
be based on a book recommended by Oprah Winfrey.
The TV
movie is smart and the actors give it their best, but it is very slight when
all is said and done. Holcomb has been
directing and working on hit TV shows for years (The Six Million Dollar Man, the first season of Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman, the original Battlestar Galactica, The Equalizer, Numb3rs and the old 1979 Captain
America TV movie) and he is efficient enough to keep this professional and
going, but genre work is his best calling.
That makes this a curio at best.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is not bad for its age, with some good
color and clarity, but nothing too distinctive either. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is also well
recorded for its age, but nothing out of the ordinary. There are no extras.
- Nicholas Sheffo
