***SPOILERS*** It's when middle age single mom Jill Maddopx, Jean Seymour, got her long awaited heart transplant that her life took a dramatic and total change. Sure the transplant save Jill's life but it also change her personality where she became a hard drinking junk food eating party girl, dressing up in tight mini skirts, who changed her love for classical to country & western and rap music.
All this behavior on Jill's part turns her daughter Amanda, Maggie Lawson, into an almost basket case with her mom acting as if she's her spoiled kid sister. Amanda who was on her way to became a classical violinist dropped out of the New England Musical Conservatory to work at places, that play country & western music, that her now born again mother went to visit with her boyfriends who for the most part were young enough to be her sons! Seeing that both her as well as her daughters lives are completely going to pot Jill finally made an effort to track down the person who's heart she received in her transplant operation. That's in order for Jill to come to terms to what that operation did both to her and those, in how it changed Jill's personality, that she loved.
It's then that Jill , through the internet, finds a news article of a 22 year old biker-Matt LaSalle-who was killed in a traffic accident in Road Island, Jill lived in neighboring Massachusetts, just 24 hours before she received her heart. It's when Jill together with a very reluctant Amanda, who had just about had it with her mothers wild antics, went to visit the LaSalle family that she finally realized that her hunch that she was implanted with Matt's heart was right! It took a while for the news to settle in but Jill started to realize that she can't lead the wild and dangerous life that Matt did without jeopardizing, as well as alienating, her daughters as well as her friends relationships and finally did the right thing! Got back, as hard as it was, to being the person she was before she got a new lease on life: "The Heart of a Stranger"!
P.S The made for TV movie "Heart of a Stranger" is based on the true story of heart transplant recipient Claire Sylvia. It was Claire who got a heart transplant from an 18 year old hard drinking and wild living party guy who killed himself riding his motorbike at speeds of some 100MPH into an oncoming truck. In what's called cellular memory Claire took on the characteristics of the person who's heart she received that almost caused her to end up, by taking on his lifestyle, the same way that he did. There's also a really touching and heart-felt "New Twilight Zone" episode that's very similar to both the movie "Heart of a Stranger" and the Caire Sylvia book that its based on called "Appointment on route 17" staring Paul La Mat.
All this behavior on Jill's part turns her daughter Amanda, Maggie Lawson, into an almost basket case with her mom acting as if she's her spoiled kid sister. Amanda who was on her way to became a classical violinist dropped out of the New England Musical Conservatory to work at places, that play country & western music, that her now born again mother went to visit with her boyfriends who for the most part were young enough to be her sons! Seeing that both her as well as her daughters lives are completely going to pot Jill finally made an effort to track down the person who's heart she received in her transplant operation. That's in order for Jill to come to terms to what that operation did both to her and those, in how it changed Jill's personality, that she loved.
It's then that Jill , through the internet, finds a news article of a 22 year old biker-Matt LaSalle-who was killed in a traffic accident in Road Island, Jill lived in neighboring Massachusetts, just 24 hours before she received her heart. It's when Jill together with a very reluctant Amanda, who had just about had it with her mothers wild antics, went to visit the LaSalle family that she finally realized that her hunch that she was implanted with Matt's heart was right! It took a while for the news to settle in but Jill started to realize that she can't lead the wild and dangerous life that Matt did without jeopardizing, as well as alienating, her daughters as well as her friends relationships and finally did the right thing! Got back, as hard as it was, to being the person she was before she got a new lease on life: "The Heart of a Stranger"!
P.S The made for TV movie "Heart of a Stranger" is based on the true story of heart transplant recipient Claire Sylvia. It was Claire who got a heart transplant from an 18 year old hard drinking and wild living party guy who killed himself riding his motorbike at speeds of some 100MPH into an oncoming truck. In what's called cellular memory Claire took on the characteristics of the person who's heart she received that almost caused her to end up, by taking on his lifestyle, the same way that he did. There's also a really touching and heart-felt "New Twilight Zone" episode that's very similar to both the movie "Heart of a Stranger" and the Caire Sylvia book that its based on called "Appointment on route 17" staring Paul La Mat.