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'Night Mother (1986)
Anne's Niche: Actress
Character: Thelma Cates
Cast and Crew
My Too Cents:
Synopsis:
___Deceptively complex, this
adaptation of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner hews closely to the grim line of
the stage play and seldom compromises. It's early evening in a small house in
the Midwest. Jessie Cates (Sissy Spacek), a woman in her late 30s, is going
about what seems to be a normal routine, as though she is about to take a trip.
She cleans the refrigerator, cancels the newspaper delivery, packs and labels
her clothes for the Salvation Army, and does a few other chores. After 10
minutes or so have elapsed, she tells her mother (Anne Bancroft) that she is
going to kill herself later that evening. Jessie is an epileptic; she has an
ex-husband and a son who is on his way to becoming a criminal. The only person
she ever loved, her father, has died and now she is living with her mother. Her
life has spun out of control and she is apparently exercising her only
remaining option by ending it. Director Tom Moore, who also directed the play,
makes a fairly good debut in a difficult task. Spacek and Bancroft have the
only speaking roles, but brief glimpses of some of the other family members are
provided in an effort to keep the picture from seeming totally stagebound, which
it is. Marsha Norman's script had many levels, switching sympathies for both
actresses at the turn of a phrase. It is to her credit that it works.
(TV Guide)
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